South Korea’s Next Platform: Chzzk or AfreecaTV?

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
Following Twitch's exit from South Korea on February 27, 2024, its Korean-speaking audience viewership dropped from 152K average minutes watched (AMA) at the time of the announcement to 42K by the week of the shutdown.
02
AfreecaTV and Chzzk have emerged as the primary successors, with each platform capturing approximately one-third of the total Korean-speaking streaming channels as of December 19, 2023.
03
AfreecaTV currently leads in viewer retention, boasting 138K AMA—more than double the combined AMA of Twitch and Chzzk as of late December 2023.
04
Chzzk, a new platform backed by Naver, has rapidly scaled to 23K unique channels and achieved 22K AMA, positioning itself as a direct UI-based competitor to Twitch.
05
Audience migration is highly effective for top creators; for example, streamer Han Dong-sook saw his Twitch AMA drop from 14K in December 2023 to 2.3K in February 2024, while his Chzzk AMA rose to 14.3K.
06
Platform adoption varies by content category, with games popular among younger audiences like Minecraft showing strong migration, reaching 30K AMA on Chzzk, which is 82% of its former Twitch viewership.

Summary

The South Korean live-streaming market is undergoing a significant transition following Twitch’s decision to exit the region in February 2024 due to high operating costs. This shift has created a competitive landscape between two primary domestic alternatives: the long-standing platform AfreecaTV and the newly launched, Naver-backed service Chzzk. The analysis focuses on how these platforms are absorbing the displaced Twitch user base and how creator migration is reshaping viewership patterns within the country.

Data indicates a rapid decline in Twitch’s Korean-speaking viewership, which dropped from 152,000 average minute viewership (AMA) at the time of the shutdown announcement to 42,000 over the subsequent 11 weeks. As of December 2023, both AfreecaTV and Chzzk had captured approximately 23,000 unique Korean-speaking channels each, effectively splitting the market share. While AfreecaTV currently maintains a stronger position in total viewership—boasting more than double the combined AMA of Twitch and Chzzk—Chzzk is gaining traction by offering a user interface and experience closely modeled after Twitch.

The migration of creators is a critical driver of this transition. Popular streamers have demonstrated that their fanbases are willing to follow them to new platforms, as evidenced by specific case studies where creators saw their AMA on Twitch plummet while simultaneously rising on Chzzk. While Chzzk is still in its beta phase, its ability to capture viewership for titles popular with younger demographics, such as Minecraft, suggests it is a viable long-term competitor. Ultimately, the market is currently in a state of flux as users weigh the established loyalty and services of AfreecaTV against the familiar, Twitch-like environment provided by Chzzk.