TwitchCon returns to San Diego, announces 5-year residency

For many in the audience at Friday’s TwitchCon opening ceremony, the news that TwitchCon will stay in San Diego for the next five years was met with cheers and applause.

The streaming platform’s convention was in Las Vegas last year, but San Diego has been its favorite home. This year is the fourth time the city has hosted the convention; the last time was in 2022.

“We love San Diego. We Enjoy having it here,” said Mary Kish, head of community at Twitch.

Twitch hosts two conventions each year — one in North America and one in Europe. She said San Diego’s innovative atmosphere is well-suited for Twitch.

“San Diego is important to us because it also is really advanced in technology,” Kish said. “Twitch is on the cusp of technology, and we’re also culture changers. When something is popular on Twitch, you might see it in the world. And I think that’s really reflective of the space we want to be in.”

Carlsbad resident Tommy Ryan, who was in attendance with his son, Oliver, agrees. He said unlike San Diego Comic-Con International, TwitchCon isn’t all about pop culture. There’s also a tech community here.

He follows some coder streamers, and as a software writer, he said this could expose his son to a potential career path.

“I pulled him out of school today so that, you know, he could just experience,” Ryan said. “Maybe this is a potential job path. It takes a lot of work, but, I mean, this whole conference is a testament that you can make a living out of this software.”

Twitch is a streaming platform owned by Amazon. It offers streaming content ranging from art classes to gaming to politics. Because there is no algorithm to beat, it’s become a popular platform for content creators to build a community, such as Casper J.

He’s built a community of more than 60,000 followers. He likes streaming because he’s able to take his audience with him wherever he goes.

He was mid-stream interacting with his community when he talked to KPBS.

“What’s really exciting to me isn’t just these booths or whatever, but meeting old friends that I’ve never met that we’ve talked to for years and years,” Casper J said. “And also connecting with new friends as well.”

This was his first time at TwitchCon, but he enjoys the atmosphere here in San Diego. He thinks it’s great that the convention will be in San Diego through 2029.

“I think San Diego was a good city to kind of traverse for a lot of people coming in,” Casper J said. “I heard a lot of bad things about Las Vegas last year — that the traffic was bad, getting around the pedestrians is bad.”