The Affective Labor and Performance of Live Streaming on Twitch.tv

Abstract

This article explores affective and immaterial labor on the leading live-streaming platform, Twitch.tv, which boasts over one hundred million regular viewers and two million regular broadcasters. This labor involves digitally mediated outward countenance, including being friendly to viewers, soliciting donations, building parasocial intimacy with spectators, and engaging audiences through humor. We offer an examination of streamers broadcasting as a “character,” which we situate within the context of play becoming work, the labor of performance and acting, and the economic compulsions that shape cultural labor on Twitch. We draw on hundred interviews with professional and aspiring-professional game broadcasters conducted in 2016 and 2017 at gaming events across the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Poland, alongside ethnographic research. This inquiry into the dynamics of digital games and labor underscores the importance of studying live streaming as part of a wider critical investigation of contemporary digital work.

Motivations for the Use of Video Game Streaming Platforms: The Moderating Effect of Sex, Age and Self-Perception of Level as a Player

“…In this respect, Taylor [ 11 ] points out how the content generated on these platforms and the endlessly expanding audience is altering the way we currently understand communication media. Other studies focus on new content creators (streamers), addressing the context in which video games and streaming become professionalized, and examine the contribution made to shaping contemporary digital culture [ 12 ]; the difficulties streamers experience when their audience grows [ 13 ] and how it can affect their performance as players [ 14 ]; as well as the different ways in which they stream and create content with their viewers [ 15 ]. Among the lines of research focused on the audience are those that explore the motivations and types of use underlying viewer participation [ 10 , 11 ].…”

What You Post is What You Get: The Mediator Role of Reached Individuals in the Causal Relationship among Posted Content Types and Follower Counts on Facebook

“…Based on recent research in terms of user-attraction and interest on social media (Liu et al, 2014;Salganik et al, 2006;Venkatanathan et al, 2012;Wen & Lin, 2010), paired with contemporary trends in online gaming, particularly in the streaming platform of Twitch.tv (Johnson & Woodcock, 2019a, 2019bWoodcock & Johnson, 2019), the aim of the present was to discover user-attraction characteristics of different posted content on the Facebook brand page of a Hungarian Twitch.tv streamer, RandomNickname.…”

“…Twitch. tv, according to Johnson and Woodcock (2019), is having a particular impact on the video game industry, in terms of extending the visibility and lifespan of games, offering opportunities for game reviews and spreading knowledge and expertise in game programming as well (Johnson & Woodcock, 2019b).…”

“And Today’s Top Donator is”: How Live Streamers on Twitch.tv Monetize and Gamify Their Broadcasts

“…This builds on longer traditions of sponsorships in traditional media, albeit in a new context. A streamer must build an audience first, but once they can show strong consistent viewing numbers, "it then becomes possible to negotiate with companies for advertising or sponsorship" (Woodcock & Johnson, 2019a). For example, a streamer might be paid to play a game on their channel for a particular length of time, or to host a banner for a certain company next to their social media links.…”