Livestreaming has become an increasingly important aspect of the video game industry, especially for developers whose games have a strong eSports community. Millions of people watch game streams on sites like Twitch.tv, and the data gained from those viewers has started to shape the way developers create and market their games.

According to Kim Phan, senior manager of eSports at Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., livestreaming data has started to affect nearly all aspects of the company.

“[Livestreaming] certainly has impacted the way our players experience our games,” Phan told GamesIndustry. “Usually when people play the game, it’s what they do with the game directly. Now, with streaming, it’s a whole other way to experience it.”

The data found in livestreaming

As a developer, Blizzard is almost unparalleled in the number of livestream viewers its games bring in. Activision Blizzard, Inc. accounted for 17.4 percent of the total number of hours watched on Twitch for the month of March 2015. The most-watched Blizzard game was Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, which alone accounted for 8.9 percent of the total hours watched, and three other games for the studio were in the top 20.

“It’s very important now that we always have streams and we find out where our viewers are from and what languages they like to watch, and which games they enjoy,” Phan said. “I think that the data has helped us learn a lot from that. I think it’s going to continue to evolve. It’s impacted us, I think, throughout the entire company; even how we market the game.”

Livestreamers get support from Blizzard

Phan explained that livestreaming has had a profound impact on the way the studio connects with its fans, and Blizzard frequently reaches out to the streamers themselves to help promote the content they put out.

“We do reach out to the influencers who are really involved in our game because we want to support them,” Phan said. “We obviously appreciate the work that they’re doing and the promotion that they’re getting.”

While Blizzard’s focus with livestreaming is on the community aspect, other developers have used sites like Twitch as a platform for marketing, but it has not always worked out. Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. recently ran a three-day marketing stunt that would ultimately announce the next Deus Ex game, but fans were quickly bored by the repetitive content.

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