The Scourge of Streaming
At any given time in North America, an average of 2 million people are watching something live on Twitch. What is Twitch? If you were born before 1990, you may not know. Twitch is a streaming platform where content creators can broadcast live video of anything. And I mean literally anything. Viewers can interact with streamers (content creators) through a live chat function.
It is becoming common for people to replace television with Twitch. When people come home from work, they sit down with a meal to watch live streams. A person often watches several hours of content in one sitting.
- In November 2025, 1.4 trillion hours of live content were watched on the platform from 6.5 million different content creators.
- On average, close to 52 million hours of content is consumed daily by 2 million viewers (the number of concurrent viewers can change throughout the day).
- About 1 million streamers broadcast each day.
Streaming yourself playing video games is one of the most viewed subjects on the site: The most popular games are Counter Strike, Minecraft, League of Legends and Grand Theft Auto.
However, the most popular category is “just chatting,” where streamers will talk with the live “chat” and host other people. Hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, will watch other people talk about their lives, sports, news, anything.
The most-watched Twitch stream of all time in North America was on June 10, 2024, when Kai Cenat (top Twitch streamer in North America) had 720,000 viewers at once. Streaming from the basement of his house, Cenat and comedians Kevin Hart and Druski sat around and talked, eventually including a FaceTime from Lebron James. It was a “sleepover” livestream, which broadcast them sleeping in the basement. This is the future of entertainment.
The largest Twitch event ever was the La Velada amateur boxing event, where streamers boxed against one another. The 2025 event had 9.4 million viewers.
Here are some other examples of popular Twitch content:
- Sleep streams: People (usually women) broadcast themselves sleeping on their bed, which attracts thousands of viewers.
- Sleepover streams: Groups of streamers have sleepovers and stream the content.
- Hot tub streams: Scantily clad women stream from a hot tub or pool.
- Video reactions: People stream their reactions to other videos.
- Various games: People play party games or online trivia games together.
- Life streams: People live-stream their life as they travel, walk around, and perform routine tasks.
- Sports streams: Streamers will compete in sports against one another and stream it live.
Twitch can be a lucrative platform if you have a following or are a celebrity. Most creators make small amounts of money. Creators receive donations from viewers, pay for subscriptions, advertise, or are sponsored to display a new product. In 2024, Twitch made $1.8 billion in revenue. Kai Cenat earned over $8.5 million in 2024 alone.
One former hip-hop artist publicly stated that he makes more money playing video games on Twitch than he did producing music: On average, he can earn $50,000 to $60,000 an hour playing games while being sponsored by big corporations to advertise products.
This exposes some disturbing trends. How we spend our time determines how we shape our minds. It is another sign of how far removed we are from God’s way of life outlined in the Bible.
We live in a society of isolation. Important relationships such as families, marriages and friendships have deteriorated over the past 20 years. A 2023 Health and Human Services study measured how time spent with others declined significantly from 2003 to 2020: “Social networks are getting smaller, and levels of social participation are declining distinct from whether individuals report that they are lonely.” Key findings from the study include:
- Average time spent alone increased from 285 minutes a day in 2003 to 333 minutes a day in 2020.
- Time spent in person with friends declined from 60 minutes a day in 2003 to 20 minutes a day in 2020.
- For ages 15 to 24, time spent in person with friends declined by 70 percent in the same time period.
In many ways, time on Twitch has replaced face-to-face interactions with friends and family. Twitch channels often call themselves “communities” where people interact virtually. People yearn for a sense of community and belonging, a sense of camaraderie with individuals who share the same interests. Twitch seems to fill a void in their life: It is a gateway to unobstructed indulgence of interests or sins without restraint.
Virtual networks or communities can be productive and used for a noble cause. But Twitch is not noble. It not only steals your time, it is filled with content that stunts mental development and is a gateway to violence and pornography. It robs you of real relationships and face-to-face interactions.
We are filling the void of isolation with worldliness. Twitch is an enemy of your time. It fosters a lifestyle that is the antithesis of God’s way of life explained in the Bible.
God warned us that in these last days we would love pleasures: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
The Bible teaches us to love God with our whole mind: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38). To keep this first, great commandment, we have to put God first in how we spend our time. We must allow God’s law of love to guide our decisions on what we allow into our mind.
Twitch is a threat to Bible study and meditation, blunting the mind to the point where deep concentration on profound subjects is nearly impossible.
How should we spend our time? What can we watch at the end of a long day? Many people are isolated and lonely. What is worth putting into your mind?
Trumpet Daily presenter Stephen Flurry has launched a new program, The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ. It delves into what the Bible says about Jesus Christ, what He was like, and what He taught. It is a great way to begin reclaiming our thinking from the ways of this world.
God wants us to redeem the time, to make every second count toward building godly thinking and character. “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
When you want to watch something, turn off Twitch and turn on The Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Ga2fpueE8