From October 26-28, San Jose hosted the 4th annual TwitchCon. The convention is held every year in the San Jose Convention center, and welcomes some of the platform’s top creators to show off their skills. This year in particular was a hit, considering that TwitchCon attracted so many people that the coordinators had to open up Saturdays to people who had originally purchased Friday-Only passes.

    “It was really crowded on Saturday, but it wasn’t as crowded as I thought it was going to be,” said Conor Dobbs (‘20).

    The namesake of the convention is one of the most popular livestreaming platforms out there. It hosts a variety of genres that include art, IRL (in real life), music, and gaming, with the most popular being gaming. In the gaming category in particular, Fortnite has brought Twitch most of its viewership, also giving rise to some of the platform’s most popular creators. Many creators such as Ninja, DrLupo, and Timthetatman attended this event, and even held meet and greet lines for attendees who wanted to meet them and snap a photo.

    “I just really liked everything about it, and it really brought attention to the gaming industry as a whole,” said Valeria Yefimov (‘20).

    Games weren’t the only draw to the convention, there were also many different things for the attendees to check out. On the official Activities category on the “At a Glance” directory, people could visit Artist Alley and to see and buy prints, the Meet & Greet lines, the several parties every day of the convention, Cosplay Contests, Partner Lounges to take a break, panels to hear from the platform’s top creators, merchandise counters, expo halls full of game developers and tech, tabletop gaming areas, arcades, and software education.

    “I really enjoyed meeting NOBLETOFU, XWater, Manthello, Jaku, FailStream, and GlitchCat. It was really cool to see their reaction when I told them my username,” said Conor Dobbs (‘20).

    TwitchCon 2018 was undoubtedly a huge success for the platform as a whole; from the attendance all the way to the creators involved behind the scenes, the event will leave a lasting impact on the viewership and use of the website.