Gamers are Awesome and We can Prove It

Twitch is a social video platform for gamers. It’s also an office full of gamers. Really — Twitch is built by and for gamers. Since the Twitch community has been in an ever-increasing spotlight for the last few years, more and more people have been trying to wrap their heads around the Twitch phenomenon. They ask: “Why in the world would anyone want to watch other people play video games?” That’s still a very common question, believe it or not.

We also hear, over and over again, age old stereotypes about gamers — you’re all basement-dwelling loners, they say. What we at Twitch knew to be true about gamers (ourselves!), stood in stark contrast to what people thought to be true. So we set out to get to the truth. What did we find out? Gamers, as a group, are more social, successful, educated, socially conscious, and family oriented than their non-gamer counterparts.

This is a statistically rigorous demographic study by some very smart folks, and it makes for good reading. Page through the study below, or open this PDF for a full page view. The good folks at VentureBeat covered the new study here.