Creating communities that represent people from all walks of life has been the theme of Twitch. The streaming platform recently held its TwitchCon recently, and a big component of this year’s event was that Twitch is working to amplify the voices of Black content creators and other marginalized groups.
Although many unfamiliar with Twitch may believe it’s only for gaming streamers, that’s not the case. With categories of interests in addition to gaming like beauty, music, talk shows, sports, travel and outdoors, just chatting, food and drink– there’s something for everyone. And there isn’t any pressure to become a streamer, as some users are just viewers who watch channels of interest.
Taking place at the San Diego Convention Center, the schedule included learning sessions, meet-ups, gaming competitions, streaming experiences, interactive activations, and a block party that made it easy to connect and network with their online peers.
Something noticeable was the variety of people present, especially the Black streamers and content creators, whose presence has grown stronger as representation within the Twitch universe has evolved.
“It’s been a lot nicer for me this year. This is my third TwitchCon. [At] my first TwitchCon, I didn’t really see any Black folks at all, and there still could be more in 2024, but it’s been so nice to see that [more people of color] because we’ve been taking up space and being represented on the platform,” Twitch streamer, cosplayer and partner known as Knimbley told Blavity. “We’ve just been growing more and more.”
Since Dan Clancy became the CEO in March 2023, there have been tremendous strides within Twitch’s DEI efforts. Some users credit the businessman as a pivotal game-changer for the digital brand.
“I’m not going to lie to you. Ever since Dan came into place, man, it’s a night and day difference. That guy’s tapped in,” popular gaming streamer Dean Celestine, aka Deansocool, said.
One of the latest concepts that was introduced in 2023 was Twitch Unity Guilds, a program for networking, development, and celebration that includes funding, branding and a dedicated Discord space for their Black, LatinBlack, Women, and Latinx/Hispanic and Pride communities.
“The Unity Guilds have been a great tool for helping creators from underrepresented communities engage with Twitch [and] with each other with support from Twitch,” Clancy told the crowded room during the opening ceremony.
Clancy revealed Europe would be joining the Black Guild as well to continue expanding the collective. Blizz, a proud Black queer advocate, streamer and Twitch ambassador, feels adding these subgroups continues to foster a deep sense of belonging.
“It’s really nice to see Twitch take a step into wanting to uplift and protect their marginalized creators because for a bit, and again I only started in 2020, talking to a lot of my creators friends who have been in the game for 10 years have been like, ‘It’s really nice to have a space for us to feel comfortable, to have a space where we can network with each other and basically like grow together,” Blizz, a queer, Black streamer, expressed. “It was hard for me to find a Black creator on Twitch, but like now I’m like, no, there’s a Black guild.”
“I love it,” KandidlyKayla, another Twitch ambassador, said in agreeance about the Black Guild. “Don’t tell Twitch I said this, but I’m often telling people Twitch is my bestie. I have been one of the lucky people who know that Twitch is always working for the creator.”
At the convention, community meet-ups were arranged to encourage different guilds to gather and fellowship, which seemed to be appreciated by many.
“I love the fact that they actually had a meet-up centered around people of color. It shows a sense of unity. The only thing is, I don’t see anything like this on the website other than a guild, which in my opinion could change and actually help the growth of our channels,” registrant Ron Green said. “But overall, I do think with them having the meet up it really made me feel welcome and definitely enhanced my experience of TwitchCon.”
“We’ll see when I get back to streaming,” he added. “They have done a good job and I can’t wait to see what else they will do for us.”
Twitch launched as an independent online medium in 2011. Although anyone can join, Black creators weren’t represented much on the company website’s homepage when profiles were highlighted in its early years. Now, there is a fair share of visibility, and Black content creators feel supported by Twitch.
“They have community events [and] the meetups. It shows us that we can exist in the space and feel safe. And then when we do have issues, like when all the RAID stuff was going on and all, they take our feedback seriously,” Twitch gaming streamer and Guild leader AshSaidHi shared with Blavity. “They help, they listen to us when they needed to build mod tools, shield mode came because of all the things that were going on and we were giving them feedback and they took action. I feel like they really do listen. So, that’s why I feel like this is the space for me. That has changed in the last few years as the company has been highly receptive to feedback to offer a more inclusive environment.”
Rachel Delphin, Twitch’s chief marketing officer, gave some insight into how they decipher what feedback is important because it’s a priority to meet patrons’ needs.
“I think some feedback matters — that there’s a large sample of people who are feeling the same way or having the same problem,” Delphin said. “So, sometimes it’s like the suggestions might be different, but actually they’re both getting at a root problem or we see something in surveys that a lot of people are kind of all hitting on.”
She continued, “But then I think there’s things like accessibility, which like percentage wise or proportionately isn’t gonna affect huge none of the population. Also, inclusivity is a value of ours. We want everyone to feel welcome and to have a great experience, and so that’s an easy one. We’re going to like do everything we can to make this right.”
“We collect feedback in a variety of different ways. We have user voice which allows us to collectively see feedback that can be actually upvoted by the community members. And so if something is elevated very quickly, we know that it’s timely,” Mary Kish, the senior director of community marketing and production at Twitch, added.
For those not on Twitch, avid users of the platform stress that it’s the perfect social site to join because the unexpected communities and relationships that blossom are priceless.
“It’s an outlet. It’s low-key therapeutic to a point where sometimes a lot of people, do things by themselves these days it’s nice to have like a couple people in there just chopping it up with you,” Celestine told Blavity.
“When my husband and I were gonna get married a few years ago, due to some reasons, we had to kind of put that on hold. At the time we were only going to invite a couple friends to officiate the wedding with us, but then after I joined Twitch and kind of built up a community, we ended up inviting quite a few people who moderate for us and viewers as well, and had a much larger wedding,” cosplay streamer JaharaJayde said about her network.
“In all honesty, like this is a passion project for everybody,” FlankThomas, a sports enthusiast streamer said. “Like this is about the connections. It really is. And you make authentic connections on Twitch. Like you can literally turn handshakes to hugs just from being a part of the Twitch community.”
TwitchCon 2025 is scheduled to take place from Oct. 17 to Oct. 19 in San Diego.
