The Promotional Effects of Live Streams by Twitch Influencers

We study the impact of video game live streaming on the demand for the broadcasted games. To this end, we collect novel high-frequency data from Twitch.tv, a major video game streaming platform, by monitoring live streams every 10 minutes for eight months. Using plausibly exogenous variation in the broadcast hours of influencers, we show that live streams lead to a moderate and short-lived increase in the number of players. This effect is stronger for games that stand to benefit from the detailed live demonstrations by influencers, including lesser-known games by small publishers and games with appealing attributes. We evaluate the profitability of sponsoring live streams and find that, although sponsored live streams might be profitable for some games, they are not worth the investment for the median game.