Just Chatting is by far the most popular category on Twitch. But the question is why? Going back to 2014, Twitch was Acquired by Amazon. Who at the time the CEO was Jeff Bezos. I don’t know much about Jeff Bezos, or whether or not he cares about video live streams. But I do know one thing. This man is about his money, and if you look at the situation from this perspective things will make a lot more sense. Let’s keep it going. At this time Twitch was the de-facto video game stream platform, and they didn’t really face any competition. Yes YouTube gaming existed, but it was not as popular as Twitch. Virtually there wasn’t any competition, but this was short lived.
In 2015 Facebook launched a new feature that allowed it’s users to start a live stream right from their phones. By the time 2016 rolled around, both Facebook and Instagram would have very popular “Go live” features that were in direct competition for Twitch and it’s audience. If you watched my other videos you would know that I always point out when it comes to a live streaming, your competition is not just the live streaming platform you are broadcasting from, but video games, Netflix, Disney+ Twitter, Youtube, and whatever other product that can be classified as entertainment are things that can steal your audience away. This was VERY bad for Twitch because Facebook and Instagram, also known as the FBI have a very large install base. If your friends are going live constantly on these platforms, there would be no need to go to twitch, especially since Twitch was limited to video game streaming. There was no way Bezos was going to let his billion dollar acquisition go down without a fight.
In December of 2016, Twitch added the IRL category. Which was of much delight to our lovely ladies on Twitch. See there was a controversy with “Twitch Thots” who were simply putting games in a small box so that their stream could be video game related, and not go against the rules. An argument from the gamers was that the women looking cute on stream isn’t fair because their sex apeal would dominate their category making it an unfair playing field. At least I would hope that’s the reason, because they just sound jealous that nobody was watching them. There is a saying in my community when it comes with livestreamers twitch. The video games is the context of why we are watching (at least at the time)m but the creators themselves is the content. More and more people stopped caring about the games being played, and focused more on the creator. This is literally proven by this video talking about Just Chatting being the number one category, and if you go to the /r/livestreamfails reddit, it’s hardly ever gaming related, when the overwhelming majority of content posted comes from Twitch streamers.
Now that IRL was its own section. Both parties should have been satisfied, Gamers no longer had to compete with non gaming content in their category, and the IRL streamers were finally free to do whatever they wanted. In 2018, the IRL section went away, and Twitch added new distinctive categories because IRL was just too generic. These categories included, Art,Music, Special Events, ASMR, and the most popular section of Just Chatting. Just Chatting is very simple, you simply talk to your audience, and you are free to do whatever you want. Because the chat interaction is often the most entertaining part of the livestreaming experience. It was no surprise that this category shot to the top. Just Chatting is a completely Busted Category which has led to some controversy. Many popular creators are streaming in the category, and are getting more views, more money, and more engagement compared to if they were streaming in another category like politics, or X game that happens to be popular at the time. That explains why the category is popular, but the most controversial aspect about it is the women who are on the platform providing fan service content, while raking in the big bucks.
