Photo: Courtesy of Twitch.How terrible are monthly battles with Time Warner, Verizon or DirectTV over crappy service, cable outages, or sky-high fees? It's no wonder online video platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Apple are doing gangbusters when compared to regular old cable.
But there's another way people are connecting via live TV: It's called Twitch, and you've probably never heard of it. But according to a Wall Street Journal infographic, the San Francisco-based video platform and community is the fourth-most trafficked site in the U.S., commanding 1.8% of peak Internet traffic (in comparison, Netflix and Google command 32% and 22%, respectively; Apple, in third place, only commands 4.3% of traffic). That means more people are visiting Twitch.tv than Facebook, Amazon and, Tumblr.
It's not your average streaming site à la Netflix and Hulu; instead, Twitch connects gamers from around the world by allowing them to broadcast, watch, and chat from everywhere they play. Apparently, their services are seriously in demand: The site has over 45 million uniques per month. They also host all kinds of games, super-skilled competitors, large-scale gaming competitions and industry events, and online gaming video shows. Our question: Are they too legit for Pac-Man? Asking for a friend... (Twitch)