What is twitch? Twitch is one of the biggest streaming platforms in the world, so why did it never take off in South Asia?

If you’ve ever watched a gamer playing for hours while thousands of people chat, donate money. Maybe that’s Twitch.
Yes live streaming is what you have seen on some other platform too but twitch’s main game is live streaming- Twitch is one of the world’s biggest live-streaming platform.. specially popular in countries like U.S, Canada, and parts of Europe.
People just don’t watch on twitch but they do use it mostly for gaming, sometimes music , podcast , streams and creative sessions.

But if you stay in any of the South Asian country, then twitch feels almost invisible here.

So the question pops up.. that why don’t it work here?

What is twitch?

Twitch is not just a video platform but twitch is about – Long Live streams (sometimes 3-6 hours)
– Building communities
– ⁠Interactions with viewers
– ⁠Earning through donations and subscriptions
Creators don’t chase the virality, but they build loyalty.

Let’s look at South Asia’s Internet behavior—

People here scrolls through reels, shorts, and quick YouTube videos as users find it fast to access, cheap on data and instantly rewarding.

And twitch demands something else that is stable internet,
Long attention span
and high data usage.

Difference in culture

Everyone knows that chat conversations have humor, slang, references, and are written in a particular way that comes from Western internet culture. And for a South Asian viewer, especially one that prefers Hindi, Hinglish, Urdu, or other regional languages, Twitch feels pretty far away.

YouTube and Instagram gained traction in South Asia because creators tailored content for these platforms through:

Localization of the Language
Humor
Topics
Storytelling

In many South Asian households:
Gaming is still seen as a distraction
Streaming is not considered
a “real job,” and long screen time is equal to wasted time

In Western countries, gaming is accepted as:
A career
An esports
A creative industry

When there are platforms built around gaming, if the culture regarding gaming isn’t there, those platforms will struggle to grow.

Twitch is hard on new creators
Another major reason is discoverability.
On Twitch:
Major creators remain successful.
New creators find it difficult to get seen.
Progress and growth are gradual and disheartening.

Compared to Youtube:
As, New creators are encouraged by the algorithm.
Videos can continue to gain views without the creator being active.
Consistent posting and good SEO are rewarded.
For South Asian creators, where success is almost expected to come quickly to validate the effort made, Twitch appears to be a bad gamble. Monetization does not cater to local behaviours.
Monetization fails to match local usage.
Twitch’s economy relies on:
Subscriptions
Donations during livestreams

But in South Asia:
Viewers do not directly pay creators.
– Financially supporting creators is new.
Ads and brand partnerships feel safer and more realistic.

YouTube fits this mindset better. You get paid through ads on the video first, and then sponsorships.

Twitch requires payment first, which does not fit local behaviour.

Will Twitch ever grown in South Asia? Yes, but slowly.

Twitch can work if:
* More regional-language
streamers emerge
Gaming is more socially accepted
* Costs of internet get lower
* Twitch invests in local
creators and culture

Twitch did not fail in South Asia because it is a bad platform.

It had difficulty expanding since there are platforms that don’t grow without the proper cultual support.

Attention in South Asia is fast, data is a premium, and everything needs to feel highly customized.

YouTube didn’t just entered the market but It got adapted.
In South Asia – viewers are not used to laying creators directly
Ad’s and brand deals feel safer and more realistic
That’s why YouTube fits this mindset well, twitch asks for money upfront from the audience .. which doesn’t align with local behaviour yet.

Final thought

Twitch struggled as culture support, ie important for platform growth.
South Asian users Attention is less , data is precious and content must feel personal to them .
On the other hand twitch ask for time, money and emotional investment and most people here are not ready for that
That’s not a problem… but it’s just a difference.