Twitch Rivals: What it is, how it works, where to watch, and who can participate
Now a staple of Twitch’s wider content and community offering, Twitch Rivals is an official slate of programming on the live streaming platform that gives gaming content creators from all backgrounds a showcase for competitive play. Presented over multiple channels, it delivers a huge volume of eclectic content putting the spotlight on games and communities from right across the platform.
Within Twitch-savvy circles, it’s huge. But as a specific sub-section of a gaming content field not all are familiar with, it might take a bit explaining to everyone else. If you’re looking to understand Twitch Rivals and its potential, from either an influencer marketing perspective or the stance of a content creator, here’s the full breakdown of what Twitch Rivals is, how it works, who can participate, where to watch it, and much more.
What is Twitch Rivals?
Twitch Rivals is Twitch’s rolling schedule of competitive gaming and miscellaneous ‘contest’ streams, run from the platform’s centralised official channel. Broadcasting specially organised gameplay contests and bespoke, live game-show-style formats with a big prize pool hundreds of times a year, Twitch Rivals is the esports and competition-focused hub of the Twitch community, where Twitch streamers from all genres come together to flex their skills in teams, solo play, and events that even stretch beyond their traditional gaming roots.
Launched in February 2018, Twitch Rivals now plays out online and at physical venues year-round, with multiple special event formats thrown in throughout each year’s schedule.
How does Twitch Rivals work?
Twitch Rivals is an invite-only series of events, where Twitch themselves organise and schedule the weekly content plan. The contestants are pulled from the Twitch content creator content creator community, and entered into an eclectic programme of competition streams showcasing a wide spread of vs. multiplayer games, with contests also broken down into regional broadcasts over Twitch Rivals’ multiple, local international channels. While the overall show is broadcast on the appropriate official Twitch Rivals channel as it happens, all streamer contestants also stream their own point-of-view of the event on their own channels, making for a wider overall footprint and viewership for each event. Twitch Rivals can also be co-streamed by any streamer on Twitch.
How often is Twitch Rivals, and when is it?
As for when it is, Twitch Rivals streams are scheduled several days a week, with multiple events often happening on the same day. In 2021, Twitch Rivals broadcast over 200 competitive gaming stream events over 100 days, and that number is only likely to grow as Twitch Rivals grows going forward.
Twitch Rivals schedule
The Twitch Rivals schedule of upcoming (and past) events can be found on the Schedule page of the official Twitch Rivals website.
Who can participate in Twitch Rivals?
Streamers with Twitch Affiliates and Twitch Partner status can participate in Twitch Rivals. For a full breakdown of what those two statuses mean, check out our complete explanation of how Twitch works. Participating in Twitch Rivals is an invite-only affair though, meaning that only streamers who Twitch have selected can compete in Twitch Rivals. Twitch say that streamers must be “in good standing”, but beyond that, audience size and authority in the games and genres being showcased will play a big part in deciding a streamer’s suitability for participating in a Twitch Rivals event.
Where to watch Twitch Rivals
You can watch Twitch Rivals on the main Twitch Rivals channel, with localised language versions of some of its events available on its international, country-specific channels, listed at the bottom of the About page on the Twitch Rivals website.
Who is competing in Twitch Rivals?
The Twitch Rivals roster of competitors changes weekly, based on the particular games on the Twitch Rivals schedule at any given time. The streamers competing in the Twitch Rivals lineup can cover an eclectic mix of gaming scenes, from the expected, hot competitive games of the moment, like Among Us, Apex Legends, Escape from Tarkov, Fall Guys, League of Legends, and Call of Duty Warzone, right through to special events in less traditionally competitive games like Minecraft, The Binding of Isaac, and Pokemon. It’s not just traditional streamers competing in Twitch Rivals either. Some special events throughout the annual calendar can bring together Twitch-nativer content creators with gamers in other fields, such as the annual Twitch Rivals Streamer Bowl, which teams Twitch streamers, community leaders, and NFL players, this year in Fortnite.
Twitch Rivals scoreboard and standings
If you’re looking for leaderboards and rankings, Twitch Rivals scoreboard results and player standings from recent events are broadcast on the TwitchRivalsScores Twitch channel.