Beating out Google and Youtube, Amazon has bought Twitch for $1 billion.

Reported by the New York Times:

“Twitch specializes in live videos of people playing games, including regular Joes blasting away in Call of Duty, a popular shooting game, and elite players who earn million-dollar payouts at professional game tournaments. Twitch viewers typically see the screen of a broadcaster, featuring the game being played, along with a video feed of the player’s face and a chat window so they can communicate with the player and others watching the action.”

From Twitch:

“Twitch is the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers with more than 60 million visitors per month. We want to connect gamers around the world by allowing them to broadcast, watch, and chat from everywhere they play.”

According to The Economist:

“In July Twitch attracted 55m viewers, who collectively watched 15 billion minutes of video. That was enough to make it the biggest consumer of bandwidth in America after Netflix, Google and Apple. The typical Twitch viewer spends almost two hours a day on the site, far more than on sites like Netflix or YouTube. That delights advertisers, as does Twitch’s audience: mostly young men with plenty of disposable income.”

My take: Not content only playing online video games, gamers also spend time watching better players play. That’s a lot of eyeballs not watching TV or movies. TIME even reports of a mid-stream robbery foiled by online fans!