X1 Entertainment is changing the game for investors

The global gaming industry has seen explosive growth over the last few years. In fact, the gaming industry alone earned more revenue in 2019 than the entire film and music industries, combined.

Part of the reason for this growth is due to the pandemic. With more and more people being forced to stay at home for longer periods of time, many have resorted to gaming as their primary form of entertainment.

As time has passed, a lot of these people have come to realize that online gaming can actually be a great way to stay in touch and have fun with friends, all from the comfort and safety of your living room.

Another major reason why the gaming industry has grown so quickly is because gaming as a form of entertainment has expanded beyond those with just a controller in-hand.

Nowadays, there are millions of people all over the world actually watching other people play video games online on live-streaming platforms like ‘Twitch’ and ‘Facebook Gaming’.

This all might sound a bit crazy, but it has become wildly popular in recent years.

So what exactly is Twitch?

Twitch is the world’s largest live-streaming platform. Twitch was acquired by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million and has seen tremendous growth since. Today, Twitch boasts a daily active user count of over 30 million.

If you only know one thing about Twitch, it's probably that it is incredibly popular within the video game community. But over the years, Twitch has found more general audiences – both within other niche communities and the mainstream – which has transformed it into much more than a platform for gamers. Similar to how news crews upload live footage to your TV, people are uploading live footage of them doing everything from playing video games to painting and even eating food. These streamers, also called “content creators”, are able to interact with their viewers via a camera feed and built-in chat. A screenshot of a Twitch live-stream is shown below.

Once again, this all may sound a bit crazy, but looking at what certain content creators have been able to accomplish over the last few years is truly incredible. Through live-streaming, some content creators have actually built-up their own online brands and communities and have also garnered millions of followers (as well as dollars) in the process. Examples of these are Dr. Disrespect, xQc, Pokimane, and TimTheTatMan.

Below is a list of the top 10 Twitch streamers who earned the most revenue from subscriptions in 2021.

Keep in mind that these figures do not include other sources of revenue for streamers such as advertising and merchandising. One of the world’s top streamers (xQc) is estimated to have earned over $5 million from Twitch in 2021.

An Opportunity to Change the Game

The emergence of streamers and content creators has created a more extensive and more substantial online community around gaming.

“Beyond its already tremendous size, the gaming industry has had a significant global impact on entertainment and culture, spanning successful movie franchises, arena-based competitions, toys and more,” said Robin Murdoch, global Software & Platform lead at Accenture. “As we watch this influence expand, we’re seeing the emergence of gaming as an ecosystem of super-platforms where players can meet, communicate, watch live-streamed concerts, shop or listen to music.”

It is clear that a major shift has occurred overall in the way that young people are consuming entertainment and it is also clear that this trend is here to stay.

As more and more young consumers opt for niche platforms like Twitter, Discord, Twitch, and TikTok for entertainment, these consumers are becoming increasingly difficult to reach via traditional advertising methods such as TV and even Facebook.

These methods are simply not as effective as they once were… and this is where X1 Entertainment (CSE: XONE) (OTC: XOEEF) comes in.