AMāori woodcarver’s Twitch livestream isn’t where you expect to find a nation’s leader make a surprise appearance, but with more than a million followers to Broxh’s account, that’s where New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern popped up in 2020.
Broxh primarily streams the Māori art of woodcarving, whakairo, and became a source of entertainment across New Zealand during COVID-19 lockdowns. As a result, he now has 1.3 million followers to his account — evidence of Twitch’s growth beyond the gaming niche. By the end of 2020, it wasn’t just Ardern, with US politicians appearing on Twitch livestreams for Q&As; musicians such as Travis Scott performing; and even fashion brands such as Burberry hosting runway shows on the platform.
The global boom for Twitch came just months after the Amazon-owned company launched its Australian team in January last year, recognising the market as one of its biggest in the region. The team is led by former Unruly managing director Ricky Chanana as its head of sales for Australia and New Zealand.
Chanana tells AdNews that a big focus for the team has been to educate agencies and brands on the wide appeal of Twitch.
“We were already starting to see
