Comscore is partnering with Amazon-owned Twitch to measure the audiences tuning in for gaming and esports livestreams on the platform.
The companies said the deal covers tagless audience reporting for Twitch livestreams, including minutes spent and content minutes per ad minute, and adds it to Comscore digital audience solutions. The partnership makes available third-party data and insights into Twitch's audiences in the U.S. and Canada, allowing advertisers to better understand Twitch livestreaming video consumption habits and engage directly with audience segments.
Comscore said it’s working to expand the integration with Twitch to other areas, including the launch of additional markets and rollout of category-level and genre-level reporting.
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"Our new partnership with Twitch is more proof of Comscore's dedication to innovation within audience measurement and across screens," said Carol Hinnant, chief revenue officer at Comscore, in a statement. "In a time where gaming and esports are gaining momentum, our partnership will ensure the industry can understand consumption and take advantage of trends in this space."
Twitch has seen many of its top streamers jump ship for other platforms – like Ninja leaving for Microsoft’s Mixer – and it caused the streaming platform to see a decline in viewership. According to Streamlabs, hours watched and hours streamed both declined for Twitch during the fourth quarter while competitors YouTube Gaming Live and Mixer experienced growth. However, Twitch still racked up more than 9.7 billion hours watched and nearly 360 million hours streamed in 2019.
It’s a massive audience that Comscore’s competitors have also sought to better monetize. In 2018, Nielsen announced that it would be rounding up survey data from esports fans to gain insights into Twitch viewership and behaviors.