Best 5 eSports Streaming Channels

The last few years have been significant for streaming. An increasing percentage of the urban population is moving away from traditional television and getting hooked to streaming services.

Best 5 eSports Streaming Channels

A New Age

There are several reasons why streaming has replaced television for many people, particularly the newer generations. Variety and easy accessibility are two of the major factors.

Whether live or on-demand content, streaming offers far more variety than television ever could. Because Internet access is available the world over, it has been easy for streaming to flourish.

Despite the variety of content it offers, streaming costs far less than cable or satellite TV. Even the traditional TV shows are now available for streaming, making people give up the cable connection. 

Sports Streaming

Until recently sports was the only thing people needed the TV for. But now there are several streaming services dedicated to live sports. Even though this is bad news for the cable and satellite TV industry, it is great news for those who have always wanted more sports streaming services even if the NFL has shattered lots of its fan base and Nike has insulted the country that made it rich. Under Armor loves the Nike Kaepernick decision but this is another topic!

Although traditional sports are available both on television and streaming platforms, eSports is mainly available on streaming services. eSports is a competition or tournament involving video gaming.

This is still a niche market, but the growing number of enthusiasts has led to the creation of several e-sports streaming platforms.

Streaming today has far more reach than traditional platforms. That is the reason why many eSports organizations live stream competitions and tournaments to grow their following and also bring in sponsors. A whole section is often dedicated to the management of streaming.

Best 5 eSports Streaming Channel

Here we take a look at some of the most popular e-sports streaming platforms.

1. Twitch

The earliest e-sports streaming platform, Twitch began for video gaming live streaming in 2011. Since video gaming had no dedicated streaming platform then, Twitch became a massive success even in the early days. Because of the popularity of the platform, it was acquired by Amazon for $970 million.

After the acquisition, the platform gained various new branches outside of video gaming for catering to all kinds of streamers.

Aside from sports, Twitch also has regular streaming services. Twitch also deals in microtransactions since 2016, after introducing its own cryptocurrency called Bits, which could be used for tipping broadcasters as a token of appreciation. That same year, the platform introduced Twitch Prime, something along the lines of Amazon Prime.

2. Mixer

This is a Microsoft owned platform, which was formerly called Beam, before being bought out by Microsoft. What makes Mixer stand out from the rest is the low latency between the broadcast and the content reaching the viewers.

This means users get to watch the event in real-time, just as it is taking place. Several other sports streaming services suffer from the 10 or 20 seconds of latency, not keeping the action real-time anymore. Mixer also allows viewers to directly interact with some games as they take place.

3. YouTube Gaming

This platform brings together both live and on-demand e-sports content. You can either watch live events as they take place in real time, or you can browse through the huge video library to pick preferred gaming videos.

Live streaming still remains the primary focus of YouTube Gaming, but because it also has an on-demand section, searching for gaming videos is not only easier but also a lot more fun. YouTube Gaming allows users to rewind a live broadcast, replaying certain portions or watching from the beginning.

4. Facebook Gaming

Facebook Gaming is a new entrant in the eSports streaming market, but because it is Facebook, it has already managed to have an impact on the industry. The platform has only launched this year and is called FB.gg.  

What Facebook Gaming does is analyze the pages users have liked, and the groups they have joined to customize live content. Facebook Gaming live streams can also be found on the Facebook news feed. Before the launch, Facebook Gaming had also enticed viewers from other platforms to join their platform.

But even though Facebook Gaming is still very young, it isn’t behind in garnering a few exclusive broadcast rights, including the ESL Pro League and ESL One series, the Gfinity Elite Series, Twin Galaxies’ H1Z1 Pro League, and Hi-Rez Studios’ Paladins Premier League.

5. Steam TV

One of the newest entrants in the eSports streaming industry is Steam.tv. Although there are already several other gaming platforms, Steam TV developers are enticing viewers with live broadcasts of video games within the Steam Community.

Steam TV has a number of other useful features too, such as chat integration. On the platform, users are able to separate public chat from the personal chat.

There is also built in voice chatting for Google Chrome. Although Steam TV hasn’t yet been used for any major broadcasts, it is slowly getting popular with both broadcasters and also audiences.