Twitch is going after TikTok‘s vertical domination with more than Stories.
As you probably know, when TikTok broke into the digital video scene in a big way back in 2020, it started sapping viewer attention from established giants like YouTube and Facebook. They attempted to solve this problem by introducing their own short-form components, Shorts and Reels, and putting stock into a future hinged on bite-sized content. (What’s ironic is that after thoroughly disrupting these competitors and pushing them into short videos, TikTok has been going the other way, steadily introducing longer and longer uploads.)
But VOD-based platforms haven’t been the only ones impacted by TikTok. Longtime video game livestreaming king Twitch, already contending with challengers like Kick, has a rival in TikTok Live. This past April, TikTok Live surpassed Twitch in viewership to become the second most-watched live content platform on the ‘net, beaten only by YouTube.
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On top of that, TikTok early last year stepped into the gaming arena, too, commissioning a report from the National Research Group that showed it’s the #1 platform where gamers between the ages of 18 and 24 find new mobile games to play. The report also showed mobile game players are 84% more likely than your average person to be watching at least 20 hours of streaming content per week.
Those findings were big for TikTok because (1) mobile gaming is a $100+ billion global industry, with an emphasis on gacha and whales who spend big, and (2) if all these hungry gamers are finding new titles on TikTok, it’s easy for the platform to punt them straight from short-form videos about the games to livestreams.
That second thing means it could potentially cutting into Twitch’s viewership. Now, Twitch and TikTok Live tend to have pretty different talent and audiences, but there’s another big mechanical difference between them. TikTok streams are vertical. Twitch’s are horizonal.
Or, rather, they were horizontal, because Twitch is now testing vertical streams with a select group of broadcasters, according to AppSensa.
The market researcher found vertical video tests and details about vertical streams’ features in a recent build of the Twitch app. The details included things like a vertical theater mode, and an option to switch between vertical and horizontal, if a viewer doesn’t dig the new look. Streams can only be watched in vertical on mobile devices for now. (That doesn’t mean desktop viewers will be blocked from seeing a vertical stream; for them, that stream will just load in the usual horizontal format, even though the streamer is )
As you can see in the screenshot below, vertical streams will show creators stacked with the content they’re broadcasting. This gives gaming streamers a larger billing than usual, because they traditionally have the game take up the full screen and place their little square face cam in the corner of the broadcast. That keeps the focus on the content they’re streaming rather than their charming good looks. Maybe Twitch wants to push their personalities more with this layout—or maybe it’s just the best/most feasible look for vertical streams.
Twitch wouldn’t comment about the tests, but did point TechCrunch toward its May keynote at TwitchCon Rotterdam, where it unveiled plans to get into vertical. (Also worth noting: Twitch has already rolled out vertical short-form VODs in the form of Stories, and introduced a Discovery Feed to deliver those Stories to viewers.)
“The new vertical layout makes it easier for viewers to participate in events like Hype Trains and support you by subbing, gifting, and cheering while watching your stream in full screen,” it said during the keynote. “They’ll also be able to customize chat to have more control over how much chat they see on screen.”
It added, “We really care about getting this right, so we’ll be testing […] the new vertical theater with a small number of channels this summer before slowly expanding to more users later this year.”
We don’t know yet which streamers are involved in the test, but if you’re a Twitch viewer interested in vertical, keep your eyes peeled–and your smartphone at the ready.
