Following the release of a live-shopping
feature in October, Amazon-owned gaming-centric livestreaming platform Twitch has announced a new ad format designed to display ads when viewers pause a video stream.
According to a company post on X,
“Pause-screen ads” are a new ad format Twitch believes will “make ads less intrusive” while providing creators with an additional source of revenue.“The skippable ads
experiment is still ongoing at the same time,” the post adds.
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Commenters raised various questions with regard to the relevance and practicality of pause-screen ads on Twitch. One X user
asked whether Twitch users commonly pause live content, calling it “a weird target,” while other users feel
similarly: “viewers don’t pause streams…we’re watching content live,” posted
@obscuretea.
Despite user concerns, Twitch is following in the steps of other popular video-first platforms like YouTube, which began rolling out pause-screen ads in 2024 as a “less interruptive” experience
similar in look to the transparent banner ad unit Hulu introduced in 2019, as well as Amazon’s lock-screen ads on Fire tablets.
Twitch has yet to preview the look of its pause-screen ads
format, but the company recently invested in other ways to build out its ad business.
Last month, Amazon announced that the AI-driven optimization platform Brand+ has begun inviting
marketers to deliver video ads across Amazon’s properties, which includes Twitch, a platform on which 44% of viewers say they have purchased a product because their favorite streamer recommended it,
according to a report from Dentsu.
In addition, in October, E.L.F. became the first brand to launch a shoppable in-stream experience on Twitch.
Powered by Amazon Ads, the feature
debuted on E.L.F.’s Twitch channel, which the beauty brand’s Chief Integrated Marketing Communications Officer Patrick O’Keefe said was designed to “empower female gamers.”
