Live streaming refers to online streaming media that is simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real time to viewers, often shortened to "streaming." Common use cases span social media broadcasts, scheduled celebrity events, and video games, with platforms like Facebook Live and Periscope serving general audiences and 📝Twitch dominating gaming and eSports.
User interaction via chat is a defining component of live streaming — viewers shape the experience in real time by talking with the broadcaster or each other. The most well-known viewer-driven extreme is the Twitch Plays Pokémon experiment, where chat collectively completed Pokémon games by typing commands that mapped to controller inputs.
📝Scott Galloway has written about the post-pandemic streaming landscape in his Stream On '22 No Mercy / No Malice essay, framing live streaming as a structural shift in how attention is captured and monetized rather than a niche entertainment medium.