What is Twitch used for?

Twitch is a live streaming platform for gaming, entertainment, sports and music, with chat, subscriptions and esports coverage for creators and viewers. It is a good fit for broadcasting gameplay to an audience and watching esports events live.

Is Twitch open source?

No. Twitch is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Twitch include Owncast, PeerTube and Frosty.

What are some alternatives to Twitch?

Twitch competes with Kick and Rumble. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Twitch alternatives.

Twitch: features, pricing and alternatives

About Twitch

Twitch is an interactive livestreaming service where creators broadcast live to audiences who watch and chat in real time. Content spans gaming, entertainment, sports, music and more, and it is well known for esports events and individual streamers building communities.

Viewers can follow channels, chat during broadcasts and support creators through subscriptions, while creators can earn from those subscriptions. The vendor site returned little readable content when this entry was prepared, so the feature set described here is limited to its stated focus on live, interactive video.

Twitch is a proprietary, hosted consumer and creator platform that runs in the browser and through apps. Watching is free of charge, and paid subscriptions are made to individual channels rather than to the platform as a whole.

Key features

Live video streaming for creators
Real-time chat during broadcasts
Paid subscriptions to channels
Gaming, music and sports categories

Good fit for

→Broadcasting gameplay to an audience
→Watching esports events live

Tags: live-streaming; gaming; creators; esports; chat; subscriptions; video

Twitch: questions and answers

What is Twitch used for?: Twitch is a live streaming platform for gaming, entertainment, sports and music, with chat, subscriptions and esports coverage for creators and viewers. It is a good fit for broadcasting gameplay to an audience and watching esports events live.
Is Twitch free?: Yes. Twitch has a free plan.
Is Twitch open source?: No. Twitch is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Twitch include Owncast, PeerTube and Frosty.
What are some alternatives to Twitch?: Twitch competes with Kick and Rumble. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Twitch alternatives.