The gaming industry continues to evolve as Twitch launches their first video game, “Twitch Sings.”
In “Twitch Sings”, players live stream themselves singing karaoke while other Twitch users interact with the singers through emoticons and singing challenges. The players could have the option to sing by either themselves or with a partner.
“Twitch Sings” went into beta testing last year with only certain Twitch creators having the ability to play the game. It ended up becoming such a hit that Twitch finally decided to release the full game.
Twitch’s decision to move into the music and gaming realm was not only based on demand, but also their long term goal to move beyond just gaming commentary. Since 2015, Twitch has tried countless times to introduce new non-gaming commentary content but they have often been met with resistance. Twitch even struck a deal with Disney Digital to create “IRL” vlog focused content. However, the amount of interest among Twitch users fell greatly short against gaming commentary.
Twitch is now hoping that music and gaming will be the answer to expand Twitch’s demographic. In a recent statement from “Twitch Sings” executive producer, Joel Wade, “Twitch Sings unites the fun and energy of being at a live show with the boundless creativity of streamers to make an amazing shared interactive performance.” and “Many games are made better on Twitch, but we believe there is a huge opportunity for those that are designed with streaming and audience participation at their core.”
Odds are that music and gaming content won’t eclipse the popularity of Twitch’s video game commentary content. However, the success of Marshmello’s Superbowl live stream has shown that music has the potential to attract a massive online audience that’s not just interested in gaming. Now, only time will tell if music is the key to Twitch finally capturing their white whale audience of non-gaming viewers.