10 Years of TwitchCon: How Twitch keeps its heart in the community, according to CEO Dan Clancy

Twitch is marking a major milestone, celebrating 10 years of TwitchCon, the event that brings the online community into the real world. While visiting the San Diego Convention Center, we had a chance to talk to Dan Clancy, CEO of Twitch, who told us how the essence of the event remains as vibrant and community-focused as it was a decade ago.

Clancy noted that while some might expect the event to be vastly different, its core remains the same, driven by the passion of its attendees. Instead of focusing on getting “bigger” constantly, the company is focused on maintaining the high-quality experience that attendees already love, ensuring that TwitchCon feels fresh and new each year by tuning into the current community “meme.”

Expanding beyond gaming: IRL and new horizons

The landscape of Twitch has seen significant evolution, with the platform’s content moving far beyond its gaming roots. Clancy is excited by the growth of IRL (In Real Life) content, as well as the increasing presence of artists and music creators. He sees this shift not as a change in direction, but as a natural expression of the diverse interests of the community. His advice for new streamers is simple: “find something you’d love to do,” which makes streaming more enjoyable, especially when collaborating with others. He points to creative streams, like QTCinderella’s “Deco Deco,” as a perfect example of how any interest can become a fun and engaging stream.

Integrating with Meta for IRL streaming

A major upcoming feature that will benefit streamers is a new integration with Meta for IRL streaming. Clancy revealed that he personally reached out to Meta after seeing the potential of their smart glasses for live, real-world content. The result of this collaboration is the opening of Meta’s API to third-party developers. This move will significantly enhance the player experience for IRL streamers by providing new, dedicated tools and functionalities for their use case, making it easier than ever to stream content while on the move.

Clancy’s growth blueprint for small streamers

For small streamers looking to expand their audience, Clancy offered concrete advice beyond simple patience. His three key strategies focus on consistency and community building:

• Schedule is Always Important: Maintaining a consistent streaming schedule is foundational for growth.
• Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate: He stresses that almost all successful streamers have an informal or formal support group. He suggests finding other creators of a similar size (within a factor of ten) and becoming an active member of their communities. This fosters organic collaboration, such as getting others to raid your channel, which is crucial for discoverability.
• Short-Form Content: Twitch excels at creating a “pull up a chair and stay a while” experience, but short-form content is the key to bringing new viewers in. Clancy mentioned that Twitch is working on making it easier for small streamers to quickly create clips—ideally five clips within five minutes at the end of every stream—to be posted to stories and third-party social media platforms. Getting into the habit of creating and sharing this content is vital for long-term growth.

This focus on developer tools, community diversification, and creator-centric growth strategies underlines Twitch’s commitment to supporting its creators as it steps into its next decade.

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