What started back in 2015, TwitchCon was reaching some of its peak popularity by allowing streamers and fans to interact in a fun and safe environment. Sadly, TwitchCon was canceled due to the coronavirus last year, but there is still hope that the event will soon return.
While this year still wasn't looking too good for a large-scale convention, Twitch has just announced on the official TwitchCon Twitter account that it is ideally planning to bring the event back next year. Next year, TwitchCon will make its triumphant return in Amsterdam in July of 2022 and San Diego in October of 2022.
It is important to note that these plans are still tentative, as there is no guarantee that Covid regulations for conventions will be getting any stricter or relaxed during these dates. However, Twitch mentioned in a blog post that the company is prioritizing the health and safety of guests and staff and will follow local health guidelines and recommendations when the time comes.
Last year showed impressive growth for Twitch. According to its website, the company added 548,000 Affiliates and 8,550 new Partners. This effectively raises the total number of Affiliates on Twitch to 1.2 million and 50,000 total number of Partners. With the massive expansion on the platform, Twitch said it is eager to connect all of these new communities together for the first time in person.
Twitch Viewership also saw record-breaking numbers during 2020, bringing in the largest amount of growth the platform has ever seen. This is partly due to the fact that so many more people had to stay at home and find new means of content to entertain themselves. Currently, the platform keeps breaking its own records, with GameIndustry.biz reporting that a cumulative 2.2 billion hours have been viewed on Twitch for May of this year. This was a 37% increase from last year and is the fourth record concurrent record broken by Twitch on its platform for this year alone.
Twitch ends the post by saying interested fans should follow TwitchCon Twitter for more updates and official dates and news surrounding the event. On top of this, there will also be information posted about discounted hotels and tickets for anyone interested should the event still happen. Hopefully, with the way things are looking, Twitch is able to comfortably hold this event without jeopardizing anyone's safety. It is great that Twitch is making an effort to to try and unite everyone on the platform while still putting their health into consideration.