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NBA 2k League gets Twitch rights deal, but will anyone watch?

By Derek Helling

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 04: Ronnie 2k and Jamie Ruiz interview Andron Thomas aka Lavish_phenom, 4th round draft pick of Blazer5 Gaming - after being selected during the NBA2K Draft on April 4, 2018 in New York, New York at the Hulu Theater. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Stephen Han/NBAE via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 04: Ronnie 2k and Jamie Ruiz interview Andron Thomas aka Lavish_phenom, 4th round draft pick of Blazer5 Gaming - after being selected during the NBA2K Draft on April 4, 2018 in New York, New York at the Hulu Theater. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Stephen Han/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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The NBA 2k League has sold its broadcast rights to Amazon-owned Twitch but doubt remains as to whether the content will change streaming habits.

On Wednesday the NBA 2k League announced that live streams of its competitions will take place on Twitch. That’s great news for the NBA’s major venture into esports, but whether or not it was worth the cost for Twitch is murky.

On top of the fact that streaming of these NBA 2k League contests is a completely new and therefore unproven product, the relevant numbers don’t seem to suggest that Twitch’s audience is likely to stream NBA 2k League regular season or tournament contests in droves.

Streams of games built as virtual renditions of traditional sports tend to perform poorly on Twitch in comparison to streams of games in other genres. No sports-themed title exists in the New Zoo top 10 most-watched games list. Twitch Metrics has FIFA 18 at No. 10 on its listing of average viewers at any given time, but the number at just under 14,000 is dwarfed by games like Fortnite, which averages nearly 180,000 viewers.

The most popular Madden 18 feed according to Twitch Metrics, EA’s own Madden stream, has compiled just over 6,000 viewer hours so far in April. For reference, the most-watched League of Legends feed has compiled over 1.114 million viewer hours already in April.

Those comparisons may be unfair, but the Madden 18 numbers are more accurate as to what the NBA 2k League could hope for, as the league can’t assume that it will have the international appeal that FIFA 18 enjoys. Madden 18 may be a much more popular game among Twitch viewers, however, as Twitch Metrics hasn’t yet bothered to compile and publish data for NBA 2k18 streams.

It’s obvious why the NBA 2k League wanted to partner with Twitch. That Amazon money is tempting and Twitch viewers represent the league’s exact target audience. The content has a much better chance at succeeding with people who already watch Twitch’s content than with traditional sports fans. The newness of the product and the fact that the NBA is behind it may enable Twitch to sell sponsorships for its content initially, but if the content performs poorly, that may not be sustainable.

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If the NBA 2k League’s content is ever going to be a slam dunk, it will happen on Twitch. Whether or not that will ever happen is the subject of debate.