Introduction
One of the American video live streaming services was Twitch which focuses on video game live streaming, including broadcasts of esports competitions. Twitch also offers creative content, music broadcasts, and more. It was introduced as a spin-off of the general-interest streaming platform called Justin.tv in the year 2011 June. Content on the site could be viewed either live or via video on demand.
Twitch had 45 million unique viewers in the year 2013 October and by February 2014 it was considered the fourth-largest source of peak Internet traffic in the United States. At the same time, Justin.tv's parent company was re-branded as Twitch Interactive to represent the shift in focus and Justin.tv was shut down in August 2014 and then Amazon bought the IT for the US $970 million, which led to the introduction of synergies with the company's subscription service on Amazon Prime.
Twitch acquired profanity in the year 2016 and an operator of online video gaming communities and introduced means to purchase games through links on streams. Along with a program, streamers were allowed to receive commissions on the sales of games that they play.
In this blog, we can see the best alternative Video Streaming Platforms like Twitch we can use.
The Best Alternative Video Streaming Platforms like Twitch
Webnexs is an across the board friendly live real-time and OTT video stage that empowers content makers and media organizations to viably convey and adapt live and on-request video content across all gadgets and screens. Webnexs VOD occurs with all parts needed for compliance and scalability required for both traditional and new broadcasters. When it comes to the (VOD) video on demand offered by the platform, besides SVOD, TVOD, AVOD, it allows pushing video on demand and catching up TV.
While catching up TV enables users to enjoy their time after the initial broadcast, push video on demand enables content providers to move content to the utilizer's set-top box even if they haven't requested the content. OTT TV, live streaming, video content amalgamation, 100% customization, digital rights administration are some other characteristics of Webnexs.
A portmanteau of mirror and narrative (Mirrativ) is a live video streaming service for smartphones. It combines untethered screen sharing, mobile broadcasting, and social interactions into one single app. It is available for both Android and iOS and the service allows smartphone users to directly share or stream their screen online.
Similar to Twitch the people watching your stream on Mirrativ can interact with others in real-time by submitting comments and asking questions. While Twitch does allow you to stream from your smartphone and it usually requires a third-party client and a tethered connection. On the other side, Mirrativ opens a way to stream mobile games without being connected to a computer.
You can further use the service too. It can share anything on your screen including apps and the menus of your mobile phone or a tablet.
Mixer (Formerly Beam)
The mixer is a live streaming video platform owned by Microsoft. Similar to Twitch, Mixer focuses on video gaming. The service boasts an exclusive feature design that allows viewers to interact with streams. Additionally, using Software Development Kit (SDK) features can be integrated into games to allow users to affect gameplay or to vote on elements using buttons displayed along the stream.
A mixer was a service that appeals more to Windows 10 and Xbox players as it was fully integrated by Microsoft’s cross-platform plans. There are featured streamers whose stream is happening at that moment and you can search by game or in the name of a specific channel.
The mixer also supports multiple languages like Twitch and the service takes a step ahead by allowing users to search for streams based on the user’s language. One of the main advantages of Mixer over Twitch is that it doesn’t require any third-party software to stream on the service and the Mixer client in itself is capable of streaming your gameplay online at the high video quality.
YouTube Gaming is Google’s response to Twitch. While the service looks like a standard YouTube, it features a darker colour scheme and focuses purely on live and on-demand video game’s gameplay.
YouTube Gaming boasts many game-related videos to explore, ranging from simple soundtrack compilations to walkthroughs and even live reviews. Like Twitch, YouTube Gaming is also recommended for searching for their preferred content easily. Also, to get the newest stuff as it’s happening, you simply have to click on the ‘Live’ tab. Twitch has many gamer-oriented audiences, whereas YouTube Gaming covers many audiences from YouTube, which gives it some advantage as YouTube Gaming’s viewing experience is the same as YouTube.
An added comments section in YouTube Gaming was allowing your viewers to interact with you. Since monetization on YouTube Gaming is also very simple like monetization in Twitch.
Periscope is a live video streaming app for iOS and Android, later bought back by Twitter in 2015. Periscope was one of the major contributing factors to Mirrativ, as Mirrativ was a hybrid of Twitch and Periscope. The Twitter-owned service are still preferred by a lot of users in the world. This service allows users to stream from their mobile phone itself, pushing and streaming their connected Twitter feed for maximum viewership. Periscope also allows the viewers to interact with the stream in real-time. They can leave hearts and comments as the streamer interacts with the all-around viewers in the world. Users can broadcast in portrait or landscape mode as they wish. Similar to Twitch, streamers can also save their finished streams for later consumption. Periscope allows the user to block unwanted viewers on their channel. Users can also stream using their camera, whereas Twitch allows only streams to the user’s screen.
Conclusion
Streaming for fun is quite simple as there are no expectations attached to it. Once you start considering streaming as a career option in a gaming platform, it will be a challenging task.
Tournament games and competitions are a good way to earn but doing the same from just live streaming can test your limits. Apart from crowded Twitch, you have several services still trying to grow and compete with the authoritative position of Twitch.
Try your hands at alternative sites and build a name for yourself and a strong foundation before moving onto Twitch.
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