The Twitch Boom: The Rise Of The Plataform Due To The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic led various countries worldwide to implement social distancing measures and strict quarantines, resulting in changes in people's daily consumption habits. The increase in time spent at home fostered new forms of home entertainment, driving various types of online entertainment and interaction. The main objective of this study is to measure and analyze the impact of the pandemic's effects on content consumption on an online live streaming platform, Twitch. The research method involved the use of data related to the average total views on the platform, aiming to determine the initial and prolonged effects of the pandemic on the behavior and evolution of consumed content on the platform. Statistical techniques employed included Regression Discontinuity and Differences in Differences. The results suggest that the pandemic led to an increase in the number of concurrently connected users by 30% to 40%. Furthermore, it is observed that this change in the platform's viewership level persists over time, maintaining the growth trend observed before the pandemic at the new post-pandemic level.