TwitchTV, a live-streamed video game portal and community for gamers that was spawned last June from live video platform Justin.tv, has been booming in terms of growth and revenue. But the platform didn’t yet offer native mobile apps for the iPad or Android, which was a main requests from users. Today, TwitchTV is debuting an Android application and a universal iOS app for the iPad and the iPhone (we’re told the iOS app has not yet gone live in the App Store but should be available soon).
Piggybacking on the massive success of Machinima, TwitchTV features live video competitions of a variety of games and platforms with top gamers, tournaments and commentary. The platform aims to be a one-stop-shop for live video for ‘eSports,’ which the company says is synonymous with competitive video gaming. TwitchTV features live video game battles and commentary from titles like Halo:Reach, Starcraft II, World Of Warcraft, Call Of Duty: Black Ops and others.
TwitchTV also recently debuted a partner program for game developers and now has 1500 total partners via the program, which is up from 500 in August. Partners include Electronic Sports League (ESL), Day[9]TV, IGN Pro League (IPL), Major League Gaming (MLG), and North American Star League (NASL).
TwitchTV previously launched an iPhone app but is consolidating the app into a native iOS app that can work both on the iPhone and the iPad.
The iOS and Android application’s key features include the ability to view all of TwitchTV’s streaming content in high definition in full landscape mode. The apps also include search functionality, such as the ability to browse by game or featured offerings.
Users can follow their favorite channels directly from the video stream, as well view a list of live broadcasts from the channels they follow. In addition, users can chat with their friends on the video stream via a fully-featured in-app chat.
Emmett Shear, CEO of TwitchTV, tell us that having a bigger mobile presence is a huge deal for platform since “the single most requested feature by our community since we launched has been the ability to watch and chat from phones and tablets.” He added that TwitchTV’s userbase is fairly split between Android and iOS.
The startup is also releasing a number of impressive metrics for viewership and engagement. TwitchTV is attracting more than 16 million unique visitors a month, with month-over-month growth averaging 11 percent. That’s double what the site saw last July. The average session-time on TwitchTV is 47 minutes, says Shear, which he says shows that each viewer is highly engaged with the site.
