For years now, competitors have been trying to find a way to take on Twitch, the live streaming service that heavily focuses on gaming and YouTube. Now X formerly Twitter, is joining that push by building a live streaming service to let X users stream live on the platform like they would with Twitch.
The service is currently limited to Premium subscribers, but anyone can watch the streams. Here is how the service works:
Here is an example of the live stream in action:
Twitch launched back in 2011 and is now owned by Amazon. Originally focused on gaming, it has since become a service for anyone who wants to stream live. In February 2020, the service had 3 million broadcasters monthly and 15 million daily active users.
For years, many had hoped a true competitor would rise, and now X seems to be trying to become that next option for people unhappy with Twitch and even YouTube.
Elon Musk has said he hopes to build X into the everything platform. Recently, it was reported that X would start to support video and voice calls. It also recently extended the length of videos that could be uploaded to the platform. Now, it is offering live streams for gamers or anyone who wants to livestream on X.
To take advantage of this new live stream feature you must be an X Premium subscriber. Currently on the web, Premium X costs $8 a month or $84 a year. On iOS or Android, it costs $11 a month or $114.99 a year.
The big question now is what kind of revenue deal will X offer its broadcasters. X is already offering customers revenue splits for ads in their replies. Now the question is how will broadcasters earn revenue from streaming on X vs Twitch or YouTube.