Design Twitch
What is Twitch?
Twitch is a live streaming platform where content creators broadcast video in real-time to viewers around the world. Viewers can watch streams, interact through live chat, follow their favorite streamers, and subscribe for exclusive benefits.
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The platform handles millions of concurrent viewers watching thousands of live streams simultaneously. Each stream involves real-time video ingestion from the broadcaster, transcoding into multiple quality levels, and distribution to viewers globally, all while maintaining a synchronized live chat experience.
Popular Examples: Twitch.tv, YouTube Live, Facebook Gaming, Kick
In this chapter, we will explore the high-level design of a live streaming platform like Twitch.
This problem combines several challenging aspects: real-time video processing, high-fanout content delivery, and low-latency chat systems.
Let's start by clarifying the requirements: