Live streaming videos have become famous with the increasing demand and preference for video games among youngsters. Various applications help gamers stream the game they are playing live with their friends.
This is very helpful for gamers to gain fame and also to earn money. Some of these applications also provide a live chatting option.
Key Takeaways
- Discord is a communication platform focused on text, voice, and video chat for communities, while Twitch is a live streaming platform primarily for gaming content.
- Discord offers private servers and channels for community organizations, while Twitch features channels for individual streamers and a chat interface for viewer interaction.
- Both platforms offer ways for users to monetize their content, with Discord using subscriptions and merchandise and Twitch offering subscriptions, donations, and ads.
Discord vs Twitch
Discord is an instant voice, video, and text chat app for gamers to communicate with each other within created communities. Twitch is a video live streaming service that enables people to live stream their hobbies to others. It is mainly used to live-stream and broadcast video games.
Discord allows the users to chat through voice and video calls, sharing media and files, or by text messages. Discord has features like chat channels or rooms that can be accessed by links.
These rooms are useful for like-minded people to communicate. 350 million users have registered on Discord and 150 million of them are active.
Twitch allows broadcasting and video streaming. It was launched in 2011. Twitch was at its peak during 2014 when it was the fourth-largest used platform.
The parent company of twitch was then owned by Amazon. Twitch remained the popular platform till 2017. It had several 3 million monthly broadcasters in 2020 with 15 million daily users.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Discord | Twitch |
|---|---|---|
| Launched on | May 13, 2015 | June 6, 2011 |
| Developers | Hammer and Chisel, Inc | Justin kan, Michael Seibel, Kyle Vogt, Emmett Shear, and Kevin Lin |
| Features | Voice calls, chats, video calls | Streaming videos and Games |
| Parent | It is independent and owned by the founder | Amazon |
| Money making | No option to earn money | Users can make money |
What is Discord?
Discord was released on May 13, 2015. It operates on Web browsers, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, iPad Operating System, and Mac OS.
Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevsky founders of two social gaming platforms came up with the idea of Discord. Owing to the difficulties faced by the developers while working with the VoIP software they decided to provide a chat option.
This was developed in a way to be user-friendly and also not distracting to the players. Additional funding was gained by the developer from an Incubator.
Discord was initially released with the name discordapp.com. Discord was then widely used by gamers playing LAN tournaments.
They raised funding of 20 million dollars in 2016. Microsoft provided the Xbox live users with Discord support in 2018.
In May 2020 the name of their website was changed into discord.com from discordapp.com. Later, discord became an all-purpose communication platform.
But it continued serving as the platform for gamers also. This led to the doubling of their number of monthly users. Many companies tried to buy discord but it stayed independent. Discord will also be integrated into sony’s PlayStation by 2022.
It gives its users options to make voice calls and video calls. They can also create chat rooms and invite their friends to them with a link.
These chat rooms can be used to communicate within a group. They have also launched clubhouse-like features on rooms. Users were able to search the channel of their interest initially but, now they can only access a channel if they are invited to it.
What is Twitch?
The predecessor of Twitch was a site called Justin. tv. When it was launched it was divided based on different categories. The gaming categories gained an instant reach and became very famous.
So, they decided to give the gaming content separately under the name TwitchTV. Twitch was financially supported by many investors.
Twitch followed Netflix, Google, and Apple in the list of most used internet sources in 2014. Twitch faced issues with the loading speed and lags due to the increasing number of users in 2013.
So, they came up with a new system for video streaming but it was not effective and received criticism from the users. Twitch was so famous that the parent company’s name was changed into Twitch Interactive.
Twitch is not only for gaming it has launched a category called Creative in 2015 under which users can stream their creative artworks. It is also used for gaming tutorials.
It helps the learners to communicate with the teacher and fellow learners. NBA announced that they would stream their G league on Twitch.
The top streamer of twitch was a gamer called Ninja. He had around 14 million followers. But he decided to quit Twitch and chose Microsoft’s Mixer for streaming.
After that three other streamers remained with a large number of followers. Most of the Twitch users were found to be men. People below 13 years are not allowed to use Twitch.
Main Differences Between Discord and Twitch
- The default theme of the Discord app is dark. Twitch has a default white theme that can be changed to dark if needed
- Discord is the best among these two for communication. It has different channels for different fields. Twitch on the other hand lets users create public or private channels.
- Discord offers no options for the gamers to make money out of their game while Twitch offers plenty of choices like product promotions to earn money
- Discord uses simple encryption technology to encrypt chats and messages. Twitch provides no information about its encryption policy.
- Discord is mainly for communication and not very effective in streaming while Twitch is the best streaming platform among these two
Last Updated : 14 October, 2023
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Sandeep Bhandari holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computers from Thapar University (2006). He has 20 years of experience in the technology field. He has a keen interest in various technical fields, including database systems, computer networks, and programming. You can read more about him on his bio page.
