Twitch breaks records in 2016 with average simultaneous viewership reaching 622,000

More people are tuning into Twitch for their livestreaming gaming entertainment than ever before.

The Amazon subsidiary averages 622,000 viewers at any one time over the last 12 months, Twitch chief executive officer Emmett Shear revealed at the company’s TwitchCon fan event today. That’s a new record for Twitch. The site also broke its record for peak simultaneous users with 2.06 million people logging onto the Twitch site for a number of esports tournaments. That’s an enormous audience that makes Twitch an attractive destination for marketers and advertising firms trying to reach consumers in the key demographic of people between the ages of 13 and 34 years old.

“Why has viewership continued to rise? Because the total number of streamers has also continued to rise,” Shear said in a stage presentation at TwitchCon. “This year, I’ve seen more people broadcasting that ever before.”

In 2016, more than 2.25 million people have started a Twitch livestream. The company has also partnered with 17,208 channels. Those are broadcasters that have significant audiences and share advertising revenue with Twitch.

To boost Twitch going forward, Shear revealed new features. The company announced Twitch Prime, a new aspect of Amazon Prime that gives subscribers free game loot and the option to subscribe to one Twitch channel every month. The site is also getting uploading, which enables creators to add produced on-demand videos without having to livestream. That could make Twitch more competitive with YouTube massive gaming-video market.