10M Mobile Downloads Strong, Twitch Launches A Smartphone SDK To Diversify Its Live Streaming Platform

Today Twitch, a video game live streaming platform, announced that it has accrued 10 million downloads of its mobile applications on the iOS and Android platforms, and that it has released a mobile SDK that may expand its reach into the on-the-go world.

Simply put, Twitch has become known as the platform for desktop games such as League of Legends, and StarCraft 2, to broadcast their tournaments that can have live audiences in the hundreds of thousands. Today’s SDK announcement extends that broadcast group into the mobile gaming sphere: Provided that mobile games are as big a draw as traditional video game titles, the company is betting an audience will appear.

Twitch has also found placement into the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console devices.

The new mobile SDK will allow mobile game titles to capture gaming content, use handset microphones and video cameras, and chat features that are normal to the Twitch experience.

Twitch is wagering the experience that applies to so-called ‘AAA Games’ will convert to mobile. What this means in practice is that if you can beat my low single digits score in Flappy Bird I will soon be able to watch.

The 10 million figure, which the company directly admits is tied to this news, points to large acceptance of live streaming games — the competitive side of which we call esports — implying a growing, and diverse audience. Twitch is a core component, along with MLG’s new MLG.tv, in the niche that streams gaming content to fans.

The company announced that it reached 45 million unique viewers per month in the end of 2013, up from 20 million the year before. Gaming as a viewer activity has left the possible, and joined the real. Perhaps mobile gaming, even in its simplicity, is next.

IMAGE BY FLICKR USER CHRIS YUNKER UNDER CC BY 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN CROPPED)