Reports broke on Sunday evening that YouTube, the uncontested leader in online video, was in talks to buy Twitch, a relatively niche streaming service, in a deal totaling more than $1 billion. The Wall Street Journal quickly amended Variety’s original report and claimed that talks between the two companies were only in the early stages, but the possible purchase would be YouTube’s most important yet. Twitch is a service for livestreaming video games (or more accurately, video footage of those games). Users host streams and usually offer live commentary as they play, reacting to the game in real time. This genre of online video—Let’s Play—is incredibly, and increasingly, popular.
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