[8]: 40 Especially since the shutdown of its direct competitor Own3d.tv in early 2013, Twitch has become the most popular e-sports streaming service by a large margin, leading some to conclude that the website has a "near monopoly on the market".

Due to technological limitations and resource requirements, the new system contained several regressions; the option to archive complete broadcasts on an indefinite basis ("save forever") was removed, meaning that they can only be retained for a maximum of 14 days, or 60 for partners and Turbo subscribers.

The purchase of Twitch marked the third recent video gaming–oriented acquisition by Amazon, which had previously acquired the developers Reflexive Entertainment and Double Helix Games.

[63] In December 2016, Twitch announced a semi-automated chat moderation tool (AutoMod), which uses natural language processing and machine learning to set aside potentially unwanted content for human review.

[77][78] Twitch introduced a Safety Advisory Council in May 2020, made up from streamers, academics, and think tanks, with a goal to develop guidelines for moderation, work-life balance, and safeguarding the interests of marginalized communities for the platform.

The disability and LGBT-oriented tags were developed in consultation with the video game accessibility charities AbleGamers and SpecialEffect, and the LGBT organizations GLAAD and The Trevor Project.

[124] On December 6, 2023, Twitch announced that it would exit the South Korea market effective February 27, 2024, citing the prohibitive costs of offering the service in the country.

[31] As of June 2018,[update] some of the most popular games streamed on Twitch are Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, League of Legends, Dota 2, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Hearthstone, Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a combined total of over 356 million hours watched.

[145][146] GeekWire reported that "while gameplay still makes up the vast majority of the content broadcast via Twitch, the 'Just Chatting' category—a catch-all term that encompasses anything from candid conversation to reality programming—took the top spot by a comfortable margin overall in December [2019].

[153] The biggest charity event of Twitch is ZEvent, a French project created by Adrien Nougaret and Alexandre Dachary, with more than US$10 million raised for Action Contre la Faim in October 2021.

on Twitch, in simulcast with the television airing on the US cable network Pursuit Channel (co-owned with the promotion's parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment).

[182][183] On July 16, 2020, US radio broadcaster Entercom announced a partnership to stream video simulcasts of programs from some of their major-market sports talk stations on Twitch channels.

[185] The 2021 Copa América association football tournament aired in Spain on Twitch, under a partnership with Gerard Piqué's media company Kosmos and streamer Ibai Llanos.

[192][193][194] The decision was made in response to comments from the streamer Ryan "Gootecks" Gutierrez, the face of the emote, supporting civil unrest during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol for the death of a protestor.

[207] Twitch began signing exclusivity deals with high-profile streamers in December 2019, starting with DrLupo, TimTheTatman, and Lirik, who had a combined 10.36 million followers at the time.

[214] In April 2021, Business Insider reported that "over the past 31 days, Ahgren has streamed non-stop in an attempt to break the record of 269,154 subscribers held by gaming personality Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins.

[215] In analysis of the October 2021 data leak, multiple news outlets reported that the three top-earning Twitch content creators are Critical Role ($9,626,712), xQc ($8,454,427), and Summit1g ($5,847,541).

[235] Although exceptions were made, Twitch previously required that prospective partners have an "average concurrent viewership of 500+", as well as a consistent streaming schedule of at least three days a week.

[citation needed] On April 17, 2012, Twitch announced a deal to give CBS Interactive the rights to exclusively sell advertising, promotions and sponsorships for the community.

[23] For users who do not have ad-free access to a channel or Twitch Turbo, pre-roll advertising, and mid-roll commercial breaks that are manually triggered by the streamer, are displayed on streams.

In a Reddit AMA, co-founder Emmett Shear admitted that his staff had "screwed up" and should have provided advance warning of the changes, and promised that Twitch had "absolutely no intention" of implementing audio filtering on live broadcasts.

[254] In June 2020, Twitch received a large wave of DMCA takedown notices aimed at year-old VODs and "clips" (short segments of streams that can be captured by users) that contain copyrighted music from 2017 to 2019.

[255][256][257] On September 15, 2020, Twitch signed a licensing agreement with the French performance society SACEM, allowing composers and publishers to collect royalties whenever their music is streamed in France.

This program has limitations: features such as VODs and clips are disabled on any channel enrolled in the DJ program, even if streaming non-DJ content (with Twitch officially recommending the use of a separate account for non-DJ streams), and DJs are restricted to playing music from certain labels and publishers that have reached agreements with the service (potentially restricting the ability to play unofficial remixes).

[283] By the evening of June 24, 2020, Twitch had placed several bans on the accounts of those accused after completing their investigation, and stated in a blog post they would be forwarding additional details to law enforcement.

While the new policy is more strict, Twitch said that this also includes a larger sliding scale of remedies or punishments to better deal with edge cases, such as temporarily blocking one's channel for a short time rather than a full ban.

According to a public statement made by Twitch, this was done to prevent streaming "graphic material related to the attack and to protect the safety of users", then had inadvertently forgot to remove this ban in the following months.

[305] On September 20, 2022, Twitch announced that beginning October 18, it would prohibit the streaming of slots, roulette and dice games on gambling websites not licensed in the US or "other jurisdictions that provide sufficient consumer protection".

[310] In India, Twitch was reportedly blocked by Reliance-owned telecommunication company Jio as well as internet service providers JioFiber and Hathway in September 2020 as some users were illegally streaming Indian Premier League cricket matches on the platform.

[311] Slovakia's government reportedly blocked Twitch in June 2021 after a streamer in the country with around 35,000 followers was found streaming poker, which was in violation of local gambling laws.