Twitch Launches Cheering to Celebrate Memorable Moments

Cheering with new animated Bits emotes lets viewers show support for broadcasters and be recognized in a vibrant new way

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers, today announced the beta of Cheering–a new way for the Twitch community to show support and appreciation for their favorite broadcasters via chat. A Cheer is a chat message highlighted by special highly visible animated emotes that viewers can buy called Bits. Starting today, viewers can Cheer for any of the more than 60 Partnered channels involved in the beta. The feature will eventually be rolled out on a broader scale as we refine the program based on community feedback.

Cheering is as easy as using any other emote on Twitch–simply type “cheer” followed by a number in chat (e.g. cheer10, cheer100, etc.). Higher numbers use more Bits, which means louder Cheers and more vibrant Bits emotes. Bits can be purchased through the Bits icon at the bottom of the chat window in participating channels. Based on the amount of Cheering fans do in chat, they can earn special badges that make them more visible to the community. Bits are available for purchase now, starting at $1.40 for 100 Bits.

At launch, there will also be multiple third party integrations available from Muxy, TwitchAlerts, Design by Teak and others, which will enable Partner broadcasters to join in on the fun. This includes enabling the creation of custom on-screen acknowledgements for their supporters.

“Our community loves to support their favorite broadcasters, and Cheering using Bits provides a fun new way to level up their appreciation,” said Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch. “If channel subscriptions are the equivalent to holding season tickets for your favorite sports team, Cheering is like getting a crowd wave started during the game.”

Among the more than 60 broadcasting Partners taking part in the limited beta are Bacon_donut, brotatoe, cobaltstreak,cohhcarnage, dansgaming, ezekiel_iii, Femsteph, futuremangaming, Giantwaffle, goldglove, iijeriichoii, itmejp, Joshog, lirik,Lolrenaynay, MANvsGAME, omgitsfirefoxx, pianoimproman, professorbroman, reynad27, sevadus, Streamerhouse, Swiftor, and timthetatman. For the full list of participating broadcasters and additional information on Cheering, read more on theTwitch blog.

For daily updates, visit the Twitch blog, Twitter feed and Facebook page. Social links: @twitch, #Twitch.

About Twitch

Twitch is the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers. Each month, more than 100 million community members gather to watch and talk about video games with more than 1.7 million broadcasters. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of both live and on-demand distribution for the entire video game ecosystem. This includes game developers, publishers, media outlets, events, user generated content, and the entire esports scene. Twitch also features Twitch Creative, a category devoted to artists and the creative process. For more information about Twitch, visit the official website and blog.

Galit Gordon

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I'm a published author and proud US Army veteran who happens to be a gamer, so I decided to combine the two and love every minute of it! Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments and I'll be sure to get back to you.