Gaming streamers as influencers and intermediaries:Differentializing the micro, meso and macro contexts ofstreaming

Playing by watching: Video game streams on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube are already an integral part of everyday life for around 18 million Germans (Steininger, 2023).The cosmos of streamers and let's players, who can act as entertainers and informers as well as advertisers, has evolved into a key marketing channel for the video game industry.According to data from YouGov (Steininger, 2023), 54 percent of German viewers of streams use them as a source for buying decisions.Consequently, gaming streamers have worldwide a considerable influence on the success of games (Johnson & Woodcock, 2019) and fulfill multiple roles between information, entertainment, and advertisement.This fluid transition was 2024 demonstrated by the German Computer Game Awards, where Maurice Weber, former editor at the news magazine GameStar, won a prize for his new profession as gaming streamer (DCS, 2024).