As of March, CHZZK had 2.27 million monthly active users compared to AfreecaTV’s 2.48 million, raising the possibility of CHZZK surpassing its rival as early as April. (Image courtesy of Naver)
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) –In the aftermath of Twitch’s withdrawal from South Korea, a staggering 1.84 million users have migrated to the upstart live streaming service CHZZK, according to a report released on April 18 by data analytics firm IGAWorks.
The report, which analyzed trends across major personal broadcasting apps from December 2023 to March of this year, revealed that CHZZK absorbed over twice as many former Twitch users as its established competitor AfreecaTV during that period.
The influx of users, many of whom were part of Twitch’s core young demographic, has allowed CHZZK to rapidly close the gap with AfreecaTV in terms of monthly active user counts.
As of March, CHZZK had 2.27 million monthly active users compared to AfreecaTV’s 2.48 million, raising the possibility of CHZZK surpassing its rival as early as April.
The data highlighted CHZZK’s particularly strong appeal among teenagers and users in their 20s – demographics that formed a larger share of its user base than AfreecaTV’s.
In March, users under 20 years old accounted for 38.5% of CHZZK’s audience versus 22.9% on AfreecaTV, while those in their 20s made up 46.9% on CHZZK and 44.8% on AfreecaTV. In contrast, AfreecaTV had relatively higher portions of users in their 30s and 40s.
The seismic shift in South Korea’s live streaming landscape followed Twitch’s announcement last December that it would discontinue its profit-sharing program for domestic streamers, effectively forcing its exit from the market by February.
Both CHZZK, operated by tech giant Naver, and AfreecaTV swiftly courted popular Twitch streamers in the lead-up to and aftermath of the Amazon-owned platform’s departure. The bidding wars for top talent were closely watched by local media.
While Twitch remains accessible in South Korea, the end of a revenue model for local creators opened the door for domestic rivals like CHZZK to capitalize on the vacuum and reshape the live streaming industry’s competitive dynamics.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
