Twitch's Second Phase of Development: Analyzing Streamer Profiles and Content Trends That Boost Its Evolution into a Mass Media

Abstract

Twitch is one of the leading platforms for live streaming audiovisual content, with a broad audience among the Gen Z population. Its growth in recent years has solidified a large Spanish-speaking streamer community that goes beyond gaming or eSports. The objective of this research is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the activity of the most popular Spanish-language channels on Twitch, the demographic profiles of their streamers, and their trajectories in content creation. Additionally, we study the production, formats, advertising funding, and the relationship with followers during broadcasts categorized as In Real Life. We apply a quantitative analysis to 250 channels and a content analysis to 84 h of video. The results show that streamers, mostly millennial men who migrated from other communicative fields, have diversified the content and genres of their streams while professionalizing their production and monetizing their activity by establishing a close relationship with the audience.