Twitch turns watching games into its own industry
A live-streaming spin-off becomes the home of esports and Amazon buys it for $970 million
Quick facts
- Launch
- June 2011
- Parent platform
- Justin.tv
- Acquired by
- Amazon, August 2014
- Acquisition price
- Approximately $970 million
What happened
Twitch launched in June 2011 as a gaming-focused spin-off of the general video streaming site Justin.tv, giving anyone the ability to broadcast themselves playing games live to an audience that could chat alongside the stream in real time. Competitive events found a natural home there almost immediately, including the first League of Legends world championship and the first Dota 2 International, both held in 2011. By July 2014, more than 55 million unique visitors were watching over 15 billion minutes of content each month from more than a million broadcasters, ranging from individual players to publishers and stadium-filling esports organizations, and on 25 August 2014 Amazon announced it would acquire Twitch for approximately 970 million dollars in cash.
Why it matters
Twitch gave esports and casual gaming content a dedicated, interactive broadcast platform for the first time, turning watching other people play games into a mainstream form of entertainment and creating a new career path, professional streaming, that barely existed before it.
How we know
Amazon's own official press release announcing the acquisition states the June 2011 Twitch launch date, the monthly viewership figures, and the exact deal terms directly from the company, including on-record quotes from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Twitch CEO Emmett Shear.
Sources
- CNBC. The history of Twitch.tv, gaming, livestreaming and YouTube · General sourcecnbc.com · Cited as a "news" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Amazon.com, Inc. (press release). Amazon.com to Acquire Twitch · Primary source (author-declared)press.aboutamazon.com · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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