A Divided Stream
The immense influx of viewers and creators on the platform saw a radical diversification of content on the website. What used to be home to video game streams and a few IRL (in real life) activities, was now a space where workouts, baking, crafts, unboxings, and even charity fundraisers were on display.
QTCinderella
The image above is from QTCinderella's 6 hour long stream during which she remade the cake from the ending of the classic video game Super Mario 64.
Doctor Sung
The above streamer is the frontman/keyboardist for the Canadian band TWRP who turned to streaming video games and bodyweight workouts during the pandemic when his band could not tour.
maya
Maya is a variety streamer who had a fundraising stream that received over $500,000 in donations from her audience for an animal sanctuary.
IslandGrown
IslandGrown skyrocketed in popularity on twitch when Pokémon trading card unboxings were the hot topic.
Because of this diversification, viewers were able to find their own niches on the platform. These niches can range from watching specific games like League of Legends or CS:GO to viewing someone whisper and lick a microphone to stimulate ASMR. Within these niches, viewers are able to share the same experience and exchange thoughts in real time. One way that viewers were able to identify themselves is with emotes, images or animated gifs that the audience could enter in the chat in order to provide responses to events that occurred on stream or to conversations. twitch viewers automatically have access to a selection of emotes, but there are emotes exclusive to the subscribers of a specific streamer. When a streamer gets big enough, they are able to create custom emotes for their paying subscribers to use in anyone's chat, not just their own. These emotes act as a unifying symbol that shows someone's allegiance to a streamer. While these emotes can only be used on the streaming platform, viewers in general use them in real life. For instance, whenever a streamer does something good in a video game, the audience will react with the "PogChamp" emote. Some twitch viewers will carry out this tradition into the real world by saying "Pog" whenever something good happens to them or their friends.
twitch streamer Pokimane's chat with emotes and common slang used by her viewers
As a platform, twitch provides a unique experience that separates it from any other streaming platform available. What once started as an incredibly niche service for gamers to share their experience has evolved into a largely encompassing service with micro niches tailor made by their community of viewers and content creators.