SAN DIEGO — The world's biggest gathering of video game fans kicked off Friday at the San Diego Convention Center.
TwitchCon brings together the biggest names in streaming and their thousands of fans, with even more watching live around the globe.
Friday was the first day of the largest live streaming gaming convention. TwitchCon is named after the site for gamers who make “twitch” movements while playing video games.
“Everyone who watches and streams on Twitch on a regular basis comes together in real life,” said Shermeen Chapp, Twitch’s head of user engagement.
The convention is now in its fifth year.
“It’s not even about playing. You can just go watch,” said Chapp.
Over 1.3 million people are online at any given time on Twitch.com, but over 25,000 attendees a day are expected over the three-day convention in San Diego.
Jason Johnson, who is 19 years-old and from New York, said it is his first time attending. He hopes to grow his JAYFISH123 following.
“My goal is to get this [badge] to say affiliate or partner,” he said.
Badges that say “affiliates” or “partners” are a plus.
“This makes it viable as a part-time job if you do enjoy playing video games a lot and trying to make a community,” said Isaiah Lin, an attendee.
Natasha Gamboa, whose Twitch name is TALISHIOUS, said TwitchCon is a “place to meet other streamers. These are people who you play with on a daily basis, so you can now put a face to the name and voice you listen to every day.”
TwitchCon has events going on until Friday at 8 p.m. The convention ends Sunday.
There is a cosplay contest Saturday at 4 p.m.