Twitch Streaming Isn’t Just For Gamers Anymore

In the last ten years, what we know as streaming has come a long way from the simple “watch someone play a video game” content. After launching in 2011 as a gaming and esports streaming service, Twitch itself has introduced so many categories that don’t fall under video games at all. If you head over to their category page , you will see topics like IRL, Music & DJs, and Creative listed right at the top. These “new” sections are right at the top and a part of what Twitch wants to promote, too, showing just how much the platform has progressed.

After attending TwitchCon 2024 , I am starting to realize the appeal of some of these channels. I love that platforms like Twitch are giving a stage to creatives who don’t fall under the usual gamer banner, and with the numbers categories like Just Chatting and IRL are pulling in, it seems I’m not the only one.

I first started thinking about alternatives to gaming for streams during the TwitchCon 2024 opening ceremonies where Twitch not only featured Alveus Sanctuary, but the company donated $100,000 to them. Obviously, that is great news, and everyone, including Maya who was representing them, was floored. It even brought a tear to my eye. But for a company to donate serious bucks, there has to be a market for it somewhere — and there is.

Chatting with Twitch executives and streamers at TwitchCon 2024, I got a glimpse into the unique streams available. Though I knew various kinds of content were being created, I associated that more with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram Reels than live streaming. However, entire communities are dedicated to live streaming non-gaming content, with a massive market watching them.

For insight, I asked Head of Community Mary Kish what she thought about these less conventional streams. She mentioned several off the top of her head, saying, “Sushi Dragon is one of the weirdest streamers, who essentially mixes really wild, nuanced, new types of graphics with his streams. He alters his face with AI to make him look like a K-pop idol, and he does dances. His background changes based on what chat does. If they subscribe or interact with him, the entire stream can change. He’s known for making extremely innovative content. He has an entire warehouse where he zip zaps around and creates really weird content that nobody’s ever made before.”

“You want to do a weird food grilling stream and do dancing with no music, whatever. Whatever floats your boat. We don’t yuck yums. If it’s interesting, people will watch you.”

That’s just one unique streamer she mentioned, but there were plenty more: “ SharpBalloons is a balloon animal artist. You watch her stream, she will blow up a balloon and then in chat, you’ll be like, ‘Make a giraffe,’ and she’ll make a giraffe for you… ijustlovepuzzles is an incredible lady. She’s a grandma, and she makes puzzles. That’s no shocker. She makes puzzles slowly on stream, and you just watch her build them, and she tells you stories about her grandkids. It’s super cute and wholesome.”

It really looks like there is something for everyone out there. Kish told us about how she has a dedicated monitor that sits on TurtlesandChill , a relaxing channel she uses to help get through the busy work day. Twitch, in general, seems enthusiastic about non-traditional streams, with Kish leaving some encouraging words for those who might want to stream but don’t game, “There’s something for everyone out there, and I really, genuinely believe the weirder, the better. You want to do a weird food grilling stream and do dancing with no music, whatever. Whatever floats your boat. We don’t yuck yums. If it’s interesting, people will watch you. Go for it.”

VP of Global Partnerships, Pontus Eskilsson, told us all about how Twitch streamers are using the platform for educational purposes, too, like the channel Paleontologizing ,

“He is using Twitch to fund dinosaur digs. So, what he does is he uses Twitch to educate about paleontology, and then he’s using his community to fund his next dig. So he did one now in Wyoming, I think it’s like two months ago or something like that. And they dug up a dinosaur, dinosaur bones. It’s a very long process, obviously. There’s a lot of details in doing that, so he effectively takes his community with him for the entire journey of that experience, and then he educates the community.”

“Twitch has become a hub for streamers of all types.”

What Eskilsson said next stuck with me the most, however, “And the dinosaurs happening in live and that’s Twitch just making, to an extent, history happen.” People are quick to discredit content creators, but there are so many that aren’t just influential, but educational. Content creation and streaming are amazing tools to share knowledge and a great outlet for creativity in general.

Streamer and creator Stella Chu, StellaChuu on her various channels , talked to us about how she has had the freedom to use Twitch and other platforms as an outlet to explore what she likes, “And I don’t have like this one schtick or anything like that. But I play video games on Twitch, but at one point, I was cooking and baking. And then before that, I was streaming building costumes and such, streaming photo shoots, things like that. So it’s just kind of been a journey of figuring out what I want to do on stream.”

While chatting to people at TwitchCon, we also learned a lot about how conventional gaming Twitch streamers have changed and grown their content into something more.

During our interview with creator PointCrow , we learned that some of his biggest videos are of him talking to himself, watching ice melt, candles burn, and more. What was even more interesting to me was his extreme cookie-baking history, “I’m going to be doing a world record history of cookie baking speed runs. I used to hold the world record. I held the world record for about an hour, actually.” He will be posting more on this on his channel in the future, but apparently, there is a whole creator world dedicated to baking cookies!

“Anything that I can do in real life with my friends is always going to be my favourite stuff.”

Streamer GrandPooBear told us all about his favourite content to make, and although it is still gaming adjacent, it is more about creating with friends, interacting with audiences and raising money for a good cause,

“I do this event called Kaizo Coliseum. It’s my absolute favourite thing. We just did it two weeks ago. And it’s my baby. It’s a charity event where we raised $100,000 over the weekend for direct relief. And it is absolutely my favourite content I do throughout the year. I take like 30 of my friends that I’ve met through here, some of the greatest gamers in the world. I put them all in a house for this giant stupid sleepover, essentially. We rent an obnoxious house, and then we do everything but play the games we’re good at.

So we’ll play the game, but we can have people coaching someone else to play the games that they’re good at and will or will make you play the game you’re good at with like upside down goggles or chat has something – I don’t know if you know I had to wax my leg for it – it’s just it’s very chat driven and silly and it’s a lot of amazing minds coming together and then bouncing ideas off each other for like bumpers and mid stuff.

And we do game shows, we do Family Feud , we did Price is Right this year. Next year we’re doing Newlywed Game . So that is my favourite content. Anything that I can do in real life with my friends is always going to be my favourite stuff.”

Even when the content is still gaming-related, creators are trying to find unique ways to include the Twitch community, do good deeds, and, first and foremost, have a good time. With so much content readily available, Twitch has become a hub for streamers of all types. With communities out there for everyone, including ones dedicated to IRL streaming and even DJs, Twitch is constantly growing and is becoming a place where anyone can come in, find a subject that suits them, and join the community, too.