Streaming platform Twitch is not meeting parent company Amazon's ad revenue projections, according to reports.
A report from The Information revealed that Twitch made $230 million in ad revenue during 2018 and had a midyear projection of $300 million for 2019.
However, those numbers fall short of Amazon's projections for the broadcasting behemoth - cited to fall between $500 and $600 million in 2019, according to sources familiar with Twitch's financials. Amazon purchased Twitch in 2014 for $970 million.
How is Twitch?
While the purple giant may be falling short of financial expectations laid out by Amazon, it is still controlling a significant percentage of the ever-expanding streaming market. In December 2019, Twitch's share of the market was 61 per cent. In December 2018, that number was 67 per cent. But while the platform's market share dropped slightly, its view count continues to grow.
It's also worth noting that ad revenue is not Twitch's largest income stream. The platform's creators make a majority of their income via premium monthly subscriptions. Twitch takes 50 per cent of each individual subscription, with the lowest subscription tier priced at $4.99.
Twitch also lost a number of high profile creators this year - including its largest personality, Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins. Blevins left the platform to stream exclusively with Microsoft's Mixer back in August 2019. A couple of months later, Michael 'Shroud' Grzesiek followed Blevins over to Mixer.
Cory 'King Gothalion' Michael and Golden Joysticks' streamer of the year Soleil 'Ewok' Wheeler also hopped on over to Mixer in 2019. Twitch also Hearthstone streamer Jeremy 'Disguised Toast' Wang to Facebook, as well as Instagram star-turned-streamer Corinna Kopf.
But alongside the losses, Twitch managed to keep hold of some of its high-profile streamers, including Saqib 'LIRIK' Zahid, Timothy 'TimTheTatman' Betar and Benjamin 'Dr Lupo' Lupo. All three of these creators are represented by the same management - Loaded.gg.
Twitch isn't in any immediate danger of losing the majority of the market, but it does need to keep one eye on competing platforms, as Blevins' departure from Twitch seems to have set off a chain reaction of streamers willing to explore other opportunities. Just a couple of acquisitions has seen Facebook and Mixer snatch a significant increase of the market share in 2019, which means Twitch needs to take care of its top talent more now than ever.
