Tag Archives: Twitch

Games, Twitch

Top Twitch Games for October 2014 – Extra Life Edition

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First, a big thank you to everyone who participated in Extra Life 2014! This year, Twitch specifically added Extra Life as a “Game” and numerous participating broadcasters set this as their game during the event. For its limited run, Extra Life finished at #14 in the Top 20. We’ll have more on all things Extra Life in an upcoming blog.

While the Top 5 remained the same as September, we welcomed the release of World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, which debuted at #6. The most notable move belonged to Fifa 15, which went on a run to #11, jumping six spots in the process. Magic: The Gathering also shuffled its way up six spots to land back in the Top 20 at #17.

October/Spooktober/Shocktober wouldn’t be complete without some horror games. Two highly anticipated games, Alien: Isolation and The Evil Within, released at #12 and #13, respectively. Much shock. So spooky. WoW. (Speaking of doge,  Twitch now takes DogeCoin!)

Gaze now upon the Top 20.

Twitch Top Games for October 2014 (By Total Minutes Watched)
Ranking Title Prev. Month Difference
1 League of Legends 1 E
2 Dota 2 2 E
3 Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft 3 E
4 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 4 E
5 Minecraft 5 E
6 World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor New
7 Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm 8 +1
8 Destiny 6 -2
9 World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria 7 -2
10 Arma III 11 +1
11 Fifa 15 17 +6
12 Alien: Isolation New
13 The Evil Within New
14 Extra Life New
15 Smite 12 -3
16 DayZ 14 -2
17 Magic: The Gathering 23 +6
18 Runescape 15 -3
19 World of Tanks 19 E
20 Diablo III: Reaper of Souls 9 -11

The post Top Twitch Games for October 2014 – Extra Life Edition appeared first on The Official Twitch Blog.

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Twitch Bombers Deliver Malware and PUPs

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Cyber crooks found a new disguise for their tools, and the targets are individuals looking for raiding/bombing utilities to use on the Twitch video streaming platform for gamers.

Raiding or bombing is a tactic that started as a way to redirect viewers of a channel to a different one, in order to increase popularity. This type of action is not condoned by Twitch, but the raider has to be reported.

Most of the times such actions are carried out through a bot and end with decreasing the number of viewers of the raided streamer.

Trojan integrates protection against terminating its activity

Researchers from Malwarebytes took a look at the two samples discovered to pose as bots and found one of them to be a Trojan, while the other integrates a potentially unwanted program (PUP).

The sample, detected as Trojan.Crypt, is known to change the start page of browsers running on the compromised system.

According to the company, the malware comes with other capabilities, too, which include collecting data about the computer. It harvests Windows Product ID, MachineGuid, DigitalProductID, and SystemBiosDate. One possible reason is to fingerprint sandboxes or test machines.

Malwarebytes researcher Jovi Umawing says that the malware injects code into processes and also drops non-threatening component files in the Windows system folder.

She said that some protection measures have been integrated in the analyzed version of the malware, which does not allow Process Explorer and Task Manager utilities to start; this way, users’s attempts to terminate the activity of the threat are futile.

Potentially unwanted program also guises as malware

The second sample (Twitch.TV View Bot) found by the researchers delivers more than just the bot, as before the actual installation routine, a screen requires the user to hit the “Accept” button.

Umawing says that the scammers behind are part of a pay-per-install (PPI) affiliate network, getting paid for every user that puts the application on their system.

At the moment, 29 out of 55 antivirus engines on Google’s VirusTotal service detect the file as suspicious or as adware.

Twitch bombing turns to spam

Initially, raiding other streamer’s chat window would be done to direct the viewers to a different channel, but there are cases where such tools are offered for hire on hacker forums for the purpose of flooding chat windows with spam.

One such service allows hiring for just a short period of time as well as getting lifetime access to it. It is administered straight from the web browser where the target’s name has to be entered along with the unsolicited message. The attack can be initiated or stopped at the operator’s discretion.

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Transparency in the Twitch Sponsored Content and Promotions

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An increasingly large part of the Gamer/Platform/Media/Advertiser equation, particularly in the video game industry, is what Twitch commonly call “Influencer Campaigns.” Influencer campaigns are one way for an advertiser to leverage the celebrity of a content creator on various video platforms to drive awareness and purchase intent for the advertiser’s brand or product.

For example, an influencer campaign will feature a well-known broadcaster playing a newly released (or sometimes pre-released) title. When done right, this is a win-win for everyone involved: Brands get their games out there, influencers make some money doing what they do best, and viewers are entertained and informed by great content.

While Twitch have always encouraged broadcasters to acknowledge if they are playing games as part of a promotional campaign, Twitch is now establishing a much more transparent approach to all paid programs on their platform and hope that it sets a precedent for the broader industry. Simply put: Twitch wants complete transparency and unwavering authenticity with all content and promotions that have a sponsor relationship.

Here’s what you can expect from Twitch driven campaigns:

For Viewers
You will know what is paid for and what is not. All copy and graphics attached to sponsored content – Twitch front page, social media, email promotions, etc. – will be clearly identified.

For Partners/Influencers
We have never and will never require positive sentiment or suppress negative sentiment via any influencer in any campaign.

For Brands/Advertisers
Will benefit from the trust afforded by completely transparent sponsorship campaigns, while engaging with the Twitch community in an entirely organic way.

Today, you’ll start seeing a new graphic on the front video carousel: a “sponsored” tag. This denotes when a stream is sponsored by a brand.

sponsored_carousel

You’ll also see a new graphic in our content newsletters.

sponsored_newsletter

In addition, when part of a sponsored campaign, the relevant Twitter update will be clearly identified with appropriate “Brought to you by” language, or amended with ^SP, to denote a “sponsored tweet.”

 

The post Transparency in Sponsored Content and Promotion appeared first on The Official Twitch Blog.

 

What do you think about the new Sponsored Content and Promotions? Is that going to make your experience better or worst?

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A Look Into the $1B Acquisition of Twitch by Amazon

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Amazon purchased Twitch for $970 million. At the moment, Amazon has a whopping 244 million active users, and Twitch has 55 million active users. For Twitch, this could enlarge their viewership and give them more access to other video game users.

The online gaming company’s popularity and influence has grown rapidly since its debut. In June 2011, the streaming video game platform was born offering users video games and ways to stream other video games. Within a year, Twitch gained 20 million viewers per month, Consumerist reported. By mid-2013, they amassed twice the amount of users: 45 million.

peak-twitch-and-prime-time-cable-viewers

As of July of this year, Twitch has 55 million users per month. The number of users that they have surpasses that of Netflix with 50 million users. The 55 million streaming video game users have already watched 15 billion minutes of content, Consumerist reported.

Twitch even rivals Hulu. In February of this year, Twitch gained more traffic than the video streaming site Hulu. Twitch’s popularity grew even more when it made deals with Microsoft and Sony to power live streaming on the Xbox One, and the PlayStation 4 consoles, CNET reported.

Amazon and Twitch have already been working together before the acquisition. Twitch shepherds video game purchases with their business partners linking them to product pages like Amazon. This way the online gaming company advertises to gamers, CNET reported.

This merger might be a win-win for both online companies. Amazon has a huge, efficient, and highly scalable web hosting, and cloud streaming operation. Twitch clocks in with 55 million active video game users; the video game crowd is what Amazon has not fully immersed itself in, Consumerist reported. Amazon is branching into digital content, and video game development, having Twitch is a match for both companies.

Shear has made a deal with Amazon that gives the online video game company autonomy from the online shipping giant. If Amazon had 100 percent controlling interest Shear says, “It would destroy what Twitch is,” CNET reported.

“I know it’s the last thing I want and I think it’s the last thing Amazon wants too,” Shear said.

In an interview with Forbes, Shear explained that they were glad to know from Amazon that independence would be worked out.

“You get retained as a fully owned subsidiary. Those kind of symbolic things have a great meaning. It’s different being the senior vice president of the Twitch division versus being the CEO of Twitch, Inc.,” Shear said, Forbes reported

twitch-downloads-show-consistent-growth

With Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch the online video gaming company can integrate fully Amazon Web Services (AWS). Shear says that AWS is an “amazing piece of software” which they could integrate into their network, Forbes reported. As a result, Shear says this could make them “the best live video system in the world.”

How do you feel about Amazon buying Twitch? How is that going to affect you?