Industry strategy: Post-COVID, Twitch Rivals and videogame companies

Purpose Twitch in recent years due to COVID-19 has become a very relevant streaming platform. Among the contents that are streamed on the platform are the events known as Twitch Rivals, which are organized by Twitch itself. These events bring together several of the platform’s biggest streamers to compete in certain video games. The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of these events on the stock returns of video game companies through the event study methodology and determine possible strategies that lead to positive returns using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Design/methodology/approach Event study methodology was applied from 2019 to 2022 with the aim of knowing if the effect is the same or different, since a drop in Twitch statistics has recently been detected, either due to the “return to normality” from COVID-19 and/or to the appearance of new platforms like Kick (Patterson, 2023; Campbell, 2022). Also, the paper analyzes the best strategies that videogame companies could follow on Twitch Rivals to obtain positive returns. For that, fsQCA method was applied. Findings The results obtained suggest that there is indeed an influence of events on stock returns and that this influence is different depending on the year. Moreover, four possible successful strategies were found. Originality/value This paper shows the relationship between Twitch Rivals and the returns of video game companies, showing the relevance that streaming has for them. The paper proposes possible strategies to be considered by video game companies that organize Twitch Rivals to obtain positive returns.