14 DAY TRIAL // The PlayStation 4 home console from Sony is currently accounting for more than 20 percent of all the streaming content that’s currently being offered on the Twitch service, with a significant jump in the numbers taking place over the holiday period.
In early December, the new platform accounted for about 10% of all the traffic and even the organization that created Twitch is surprised by the increase, which took place between December 23, 2013 and January 4, 2014, says Gamasutra.
It’s unclear how many of the streaming channels that feature the PlayStation 4 are coming from established content creators who will continue to make and then share clips in the coming weeks and months.
Given that the PlayStation 4 has managed to move 4.2 million devices to customers since it was launched, it’s very possible that a lot of those using Twitch are just checking out the new features on their device and will soon no longer use the service.
The most interesting streaming channels currently attract close to 100,000 viewers at certain moments, but the most popular PS4 streams are nowhere near that number.
Since the new home console was first announced, Sony has made a point of explaining how important sharing will be and how easy it will be for players to capture gameplay via clips or screenshots and then make them available to their friends.
The new specifically designed Share button on the controller is supposed to expedite the process, but Sony needs to continue tweaking the interface in order to make it simpler to share certain pieces of content rather than upload them all to a central account.
The PlayStation 4 is at the moment available in North America and in Europe and Japanese gamers will get access to the device, with special new attached content, on February 22.