Twitch is doing away with a feature it introduced during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 2, 2024, the streaming platform’s users will lose access to Watch Parties, which enabled co-viewing for Prime Video content.
An update pinned to the top of the Watch Parties FAQ page revealed the feature’s impending sunset. “We launched Watch Parties in 2020 to offer streamers a way to enjoy Prime Video content with their communities,” the note reads. “While some streamers incorporated Watch Parties into their streams, usage of Watch Parties on Twitch has declined over the years, so we are removing it and investing these resources in other features.”
Twitch first rolled out Watch Parties in April 2020, just a few months after COVID-19 was first identified. (Has it really been four years already?) To give its community members a socially-distanced way to hang out with one another, Twitch teamed up with parent company Amazon, which acquired the streaming hub in 2014 for nearly $1 billion.
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Watch Parties made more than 70 movies and shows from the Prime Video library available for co-viewing on Twitch. Though the feature was fast-tracked when the pandemic hit, it had already been in development.
Like many other products launched during the pandemic, Watch Parties outlived much of its usefulness once in-person socialization became possible. One of the breakout apps of the pandemic, Clubhouse, has reimagined itself as a messaging app after its collaborative audio messages experienced a significant dip in usage. Peloton is another company trying to figure out how to stay afloat after declining from early pandemic highs.
Twitch phenomena like the “TV meta” have shown that the platform’s community is still interested in watching shows together, but streamers have found their own ways to share those experiences with viewers. Twitch plans to reinvest resources from Watch Parties into other products. That shift could be helpful for a company that has recently gone through several periods of downsizing. In the latest round of layoffs, approximately 500 Twitch staffers were served pink slips.
