The popularity of gaming and e-Sports continues to climb, and Machinima’s programming targeted at that audience is growing right along with it. Machinima has been a mainstay on YouTube, but the network has had great success with its Machinima LIVE channel on Twitch as well. Since launch, Machinima LIVE has proven to be one of the fastest growing channels on Twitch, with over 24.6 million views to date and over 159,000 channel follows. Machinima is now developing new seasons for its successful shows Chasing the Cup and Deck Wars, as well as working in popular talent from its YouTube network.
“œMachinima has quickly established a strong and growing presence on the Twitch platform, illustrating the appeal of quality gaming content that leverages live video,” said Kevin Lin, COO of Twitch. “The community is consuming a lot of Machinima content so we’re looking forward to seeing more of their premium programming.”
Machinima’s Chasing the Cup was a 10 episode reality series that documented the two highest ranked League of Legends teams in North America, Cloud9 and Team SoloMid, following them during the regular season of the League of Legends Championship Series. The series garnered millions of views, with 301,961 total hours watched, and proved to be one of the first successful VOD-to-Live executions on the Twitch platform. Over 45,000 audience members tuned in simultaneously to watch the finale, which set the record for any Machinima LIVE program. The Deck Wars series is based around Blizzard’s new card game Hearthstone, and the show’s 12 episode arc led up to the season finale tournament. Over the course of the finale weekend, viewership peaked at over 35K simultaneous viewers and held a stable 25K throughout the course of the two-day broadcast. Machinima LIVE reached over 1.1 million live views over the course of the tournament as well as over 20 million minutes watched.
“Twitch has become a valuable partner for us,” said Lester Chen, Director of Live Programming for Machinima. “As one of the fastest growing channels, we’re grateful that our fans enjoy the programming we’ve rolled out and are determined to continue delivering quality content. We’re excited to launch new seasons of what they love, and deliver more live programming around the gamers they enjoy watching — we’re always listening to what the fans want!”
In addition to bringing back some existing shows, Machinima will bring over many of its major YouTube stars and incorporate their live gameplays into its second wave of LIVE programming. Machinima’s network talent will bridge the gap between their already successful video uploads on their YouTube channels and Live audiences via Machinima LIVE.
The [a]list daily spoke exclusively with Lester Chen, director of Live and eSports at Machinima, about the growing popularity of livestreaming and Machinima’s future.
Why do you think livestreaming has proven so popular for Machinima?
Our livestreams act as a sandbox for viewers to converse and interact with one another. It’s one thing to be a fan of Inside Gaming on YouTube, it’s an entirely different experience when you get to play with them live on any of their daily streams. With such a large fanbase, we can afford to appeal to a variety of gamer tastes from Minecraft to League of Legends.
Do you see eSports becoming a more important part of Machinima’s programming mix?
Our team has over a decade of eSports experience under our belts and we actively recognize the growth and importance of the category. Programming around up-and-coming titles and creating highly produced content such as Chasing the Cup will continue to be our focus.
What’s your prediction for the future of livestreaming?
Livestreams will only continue to grow as developers and front-end users begin to adopt the platform. With more and more breakout gaming events, I expect advertisers will continue to jump on board to grab these highly engaged audiences which will in turn churn out even bigger and better productions.
Is livestreaming attracting a different set of customers to Machinima?
Many of our sales initiatives now include some form of livestreaming as part what we offer. Ultimately this helps diversify our programming slate and sets us above and beyond the competition.
Do you think the Xbox One and the PS4, with their built-in livestreaming features, will significantly expand the market for livestreaming and for Machinima?
The integration into those consoles has made it easier for more people to participate, and in turn has created a flood of content. The challenge will continue to be ensuring quality programming can rise above the noise. I’m very excited to see how XBOX / PS4 can evolve this product so that Machinima talent can have a streamlined mode of engaging their audience!