Report: YOUTUBE buyin’ TWITCH for $1 Billion Smackers

Good god damn! YouTube is acquiring Twitch, the popular-as-fuck streaming gaming video watching service. Thing. Like, yeah. Where you watch the ass-lords try to be entertaining while playing World of Warcraft or inFamous: Second Son or whatever.

Sources with Variety report that YouTube is nearing a deal to buy Twitch, the popular game streaming startup, for $1 billion. The deal is said to be an all-cash offer, and will close “imminently.” The move, if it succeeds, would effectively put one of the web’s most highly trafficked sites firmly in Google’s hands.

Details are currently scarce. However, for YouTube’s part, the move makes sense. Twitch, launched in 2011, has since become a premier destination for video game live-streams, and has effectively turned titles as offbeat as Pokemon into spectator sports. It currently has more than 1 million unique users broadcasting on its platform every month, and, according to a recent DeepField study, ranks ahead of even Google in terms of broadband traffic during peak hours. While YouTube is otherwise the king of online video, it mostly missed the boat on livestreaming. Pulling Twitch into the fold would put all that content under one roof. However, Variety reports that YouTube is preparing for regulators to challenge the deal.

Spokespeople for both YouTube and Twitch declined to comment. [The Verge]