New features unveiled at TwitchCon Rotterdam focus on enhancing the mobile experience, expanding monetisation for streamers, and launching right-to-left Arabic support.
Dubai — Twitch — a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. — has marked a decade of TwitchCon with a celebration in Rotterdam.
The interactive live streaming service for content spanning gaming, entertainment, sports, music, and more unveiled a suite of new features designed to enhance how communities connect, streamers grow, and fans engage across the globe. The company announced the upcoming launch of right-to-left Arabic language support, opening new doors for Arabic-speaking streamers and viewers in the Middle East and North Africa and beyond.
In 2024, Twitch saw a +24% YoY increase in content watch time in the UAE – contributing to the livestreaming service’s broader momentum across MENA.
Viewers across MENA spent 209 Million+ hours watching content on Twitch in 2024, a clear sign of the region’s surging demand for livestreamed entertainment. The Twitch community is composed primarily of Gen Z and Millennials, and nearly 70% of Twitch viewers are between the ages of 18 and 34 and with 105M+ average monthly visitors. Over 2.5 million people tune in to Twitch at any given moment, broadcasting content in 35 languages worldwide.
“TwitchCon is our largest annual IRL gathering, bringing together our global community of streamers, viewers, and brands in a powerful way,” said Dan Clancy, CEO of Twitch. “This weekend in Rotterdam is a celebration of creativity, connection, and fun. We’re introducing new tools and features to help streamers grow, including ones tailored to the MENA region. We’ve seen strong momentum around gaming and esports, plus a rising demand for new and existing audiences. We’re excited to keep building in MENA, because when streamers thrive, so do the communities around them.”
TwitchCon Rotterdam kicked off its tenth anniversary celebrations, with another major event planned for San Diego later this year. During the keynote, Twitch shared updates across mobile innovation, monetisation, community tools, and streamers’ support.
Key Highlights from TwitchCon Rotterdam include:
- Twitch will launch right-to-left Arabic on Twitch. Arabic is one of the most spoken languages in the world, and this update will open the door for even more people to join in on Twitch and build community here. Twitch will have more to share this summer.
- To get streams looking better on smaller devices, Twitch is rolling out vertical streaming. The new vertical layout makes it easier for viewers to participate in events like Hype Trains and support streamers by subbing, gifting, and cheering while watching streams in full screen.
- Twitch is also adding the ability to stream in dual format as part of this update—meaning Creators can go live in both horizontal and vertical formats at the same time. Twitch will be testing dual-format streaming and the new vertical theatre with a small number of channels this summer before slowly expanding to more users later this year.
- Twitch will begin rolling out 2k streaming in Open Beta to all Partners and Affiliates. 2k streams will use a newer HEVC codec that offers higher quality streams with lower bitrates. With Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting technology, stream quality will automatically adjust based on bandwidth, so viewers will see the best version of the streams with no lagging or buffering. Head to Creator Home to sign up to take part in the Open Beta now – some accounts will be granted access immediately to allow streaming directly from TwitchCon in 2k.
- Twitch is introducing Combos. Combos is about giving viewers more ways to react to streams and express themselves—all while supporting Creators monetarily. The feature allows anyone to support your channel, only takes a handful of Bits to contribute to Combos, and is built around reacting to your moments, which is something Chat already does. Combos start with a single tap, which rallies other viewers to keep the Combo going and unleash bigger and bigger effects.
- Starting very soon, streamers will be able to run their own gift sub promotions. It could be for a streamer-versary, a Partner-versary, or just because you feel like it. To start, Partners and Affiliates will be given 70 hours of promotional time to use in up to seven different promotions throughout the year. For now, promotions will be limited to 35% off bundles of 5+ gift subs, but Twitch is exploring other promotions types as well.
- Twitch is making reaching Affiliate status more achievable. Creators can find the updated Affiliate requirements in the Creator Dashboard or on the Affiliate help page. For streamers who aren’t Affiliates, Twitch just made an update this week to allow access to money made from streaming before reaching the payout threshold.
- As lives get busier, viewers aren’t always able to tune in for longer streams, but they will always have a few minutes to catch up on what they’ve missed in the Clips feed. So, Twitch is focused on making Clips more engaging by adding comments and reactions. Twitch is also working on making it easier to create and share these Clips with recent updates like a less disruptive clipping flow, a first-party clip chat command, and upcoming experiments that help streamers draft Clips they can come back to review, edit, and publish after a stream. Additionally, watching Clips contributes to viewer’s Watch Streaks.
- Twitch is also rolling out rewind. Viewers can rewind a stream to the part they missed, then resume the stream and join the action in real time. Twitch will be testing with a small number of viewers later this summer to help refine rewind.
- As part of improving the mobile experience, Twitch has simplified the process for starting and managing a Shared Chat on mobile. This will enable anyone—but especially IRL streamers—to collaborate more easily on the go. This update will be rolled out to all streamers next month.
- Twitch is bringing mobile Mod View to the Android App. Mod View on mobile gives Mods easier access to their most important tools, designed for a smaller screen experience. This update is rolling out to the Twitch Android app on Monday.
- Twitch is launching the Twitch Moderators Club. Mods help protect their favourite communities, but Mods should also have a space that’s all theirs. Similar to our Unity Guilds and Creator Clubs, the Twitch Moderators Club is meant to help foster connection and community. This is a new private Discord space for Mods where they can connect, share ideas, and access educational workshops.
