Twitch beats Facebook, Amazon in U.S. online traffic
Streaming service had fourth highest peak traffic share for week ending Feb. 3
The meteoric rise of Twitch continues apace, with the online streaming service now one of the five most popular destinations for U.S. internet users.
According to an infographic published by the Wall Street Journal - highlighted by Twitch marketing VP Matt DiPietro - Twitch was fourth in peak U.S. internet traffic share (1.8 per cent) for the week ending February 3, 2014.
Only Netflix, Google and Apple had a higher share of traffic, and Twitch finished ahead of behemoths like Hulu, Facebook, Amazon and Valve. The nature of the service Twitch provides practically guarantees longer session times than a social network like Facebook or a retailer like Amazon, but it is an impressive feat for a site that only launched in June, 2011.
"We are working overtime to scale our infrastructure to keep pace with the growth of the community. That's no small task," DiPietro said. "Thanks to all of you, and your voracious appetite for gaming video, we're really playing in the big leagues, here. And we mean to step up."
That growth will be made easier by the $20 million in series C funding Twitch secured in September last year, and the new consoles will likely be a key focus. The PlayStation 4 hosts as much as 20 per cent of all Twitch streams, and Xbox One integration has been promised for the first half of 2014.