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TwitchTV sees rapid growth for game tournament video streams

TwitchTV, the video game broadcasting community, said today it has grown to more than 12 million unique viewers a month.

The San Francisco company also said that it has more than 1,000 premium partners and that its iPhone app has been downloaded more than 80,000 times in a month.

All of that adds up to fast growth, according to the company. Back in July, it had just 8 million unique viewers.

“The tremendous growth we have experienced over the last six months is indicative of several burgeoning trends,” said Emmett Shear, chief executive of TwitchTV. “Not only are gamers elevating their interest in watching others play in a community-driven fashion, but our partners providing the content have taken streaming to new heights.”

TwitchTV wants to be the destination for top players, teams, leagues and events when it comes to game video streaming, where users watch tournaments and other programming over the web. TwitchTV launched in June and unveiled a revenue-sharing plan for top content producers. Partners now include Electronic Sports League (ESL), Day[9]TV, IGN Pro League (IPL), Major League Gaming (MLG), and North American Star League (NASL).

Sven Hoffman, managing director of ESL TV, said that TwitchTV exploded over the past year along with the popularity of eSports, where spectators watch the best pro gamers in action. The TwitchTV site has grown 11 percent a month since launching in June.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.