SOOP Korea and Chzzk: One Year After Twitch’s Shutdown

The Korean live-streaming scene has finally settled into a stable rhythm after the disruption caused by Twitch’s shutdown back in February of 2024. New platforms have formed, old platforms have rebranded, and streamers have found ways to ride this wave of attention to reach new audiences. Although we discussed the situation in Korea when the news first broke, we felt that it was worth revisiting the topic one year on to see who were the big winners out of this shake-up and what kinds of content are appealing to this section of the industry.

SOOP Korea and Chzzk Grow As Competitor Twitch Leaves South Korea

Twitch’s shutdown took place over roughly a two-month period, from the announcement of the shutdown in December of 2023 to the official shutdown in February of 2024. Before this announcement, Twitch’s Korean-speaking viewership outperformed even that of local platforms at ~100M monthly hours watched (compared to ~85M monthly hours watched for AfreecaTV over that same period). After the shutdown, Twitch dropped to just ~4M monthly hours watched, leaving a massive void of 95M monthly hours watched for other platforms to snap up.

The three main contenders for this viewership were YouTube Gaming, SOOP Korea (the rebranded form of AfreecaTV), and newcomer Chzzk. According to the data, here is the breakdown of the market shift:

• Twitch (Pre-shutdown): ~100M monthly hours watched
• Twitch (Post-shutdown): ~4M monthly hours watched
• Chzzk (February 2024): 43M hours watched
• Chzzk (December 2024): 100M hours watched
• Industry Trend: Average Korean hours watched across all platforms dropped by 16% from 2023 to 2024.

The Rise of Chzzk

Chzzk, a Naver-backed platform launched in December of 2023, emerged as the big winner from Twitch’s shutdown. The platform was custom-built to pick up Twitch’s viewership, featuring a similar UI and category names. The strategy paid off, with Chzzk seeing 43M hours watched in February (just over a full month after the platform launched). Since then, Chzzk has continued to grow and at the end of 2024 saw two consecutive months of far higher viewership, even beating out SOOP Korea in December of 2024 with 100M hours watched.

The Evolution of SOOP Korea (formerly AfreecaTV)

SOOP Korea (née AfreecaTV since April of 2024) is still performing as strong as ever, having attained higher monthly hours watched in 2024 compared to 2023 after splitting off its (much smaller) non-Korean viewership into SOOP Global. AfreecaTV started on the web in 2006 and secured broadcasting rights to personalities, content creators, and sporting events. The success of AfreecaTV influenced many other companies to launch their live streaming apps, and the app has been in the top 10 downloads in Korea for the past year. The key ingredient to AfreecaTV’s success revolves around its interactive platform where users can even send the jockeys “star balloons” that can be redeemed for real cash.

Popular Games and Content Types

In Korea, the most popular content types are free-to-air media content (TV broadcasting content, typically dramas and television shows), OTT (Over the top) video services and live-streaming shows where audiences are often interacting with the video jockeys. The following categories dominated the platforms in 2024:

Top Games on SOOP Korea (Hours Watched):

• League of Legends: 195M
• Minecraft: 139M
• StarCraft: 125M

While the first two titles have global popularity, StarCraft’s enduring popularity is a uniquely Korean phenomenon tied to the origin of esports in the region. IRL content also has a strong presence on the platform, with Travel and Mukbang content bringing in 27M and 15M hours watched, respectively. Mukbang is another uniquely Korean staple on live streaming in which streamers eat (and typically binge eat) on camera in a kind of via-video feast.

Top Games on Chzzk:

Chzzk shares some similarities with SOOP Korea, namely the popularity of Just Chatting, League of Legends, and Minecraft content. But beyond these similarities, the types of games finding success on Chzzk in 2024 are more similar to those watched on Western platforms, including:

• Grand Theft Auto V (26M)
• VALORANT (17M)
• World of Warcraft (14M)

The Role of Broadcast Jockeys (BJs)

Streamers in Korea, known as “Broadcast Jockeys” or “BJs”, are key tastemakers for new game launches. In Korea, you will find that the interactive nature of live-streaming video and offering unique content is an evolving trend. This is due to the emergence of many new apps, the demand for niche content such as eSports, Meokbang and user-created live-streaming content hosted by video jockeys. The top streamers frequently make it into the top 10 streamers worldwide for high-profile game releases on streaming platforms.