Commemorate Streaming Achievements With Coins

In recent years, livestreaming has become a popular way to communicate online. “Streamers” broadcast their lives, in real time, often to substantial audiences. It’s especially popular with video gamers.

With the rise in streaming, custom challenge coins have become widespread as a means of recognition for streamers and their followers. Let’s look at the role challenge coins play in the livestreaming world.

Livestreaming: A Brief Overview

Streaming, while it seems ubiquitous today, is actually a relatively recent phenomenon, a result of the rise of the Internet.

So what exactly is livestreaming? Simply put, it’s a form of broadcasting live audio and video material via the Internet for the general public on a global scale. Unlike other online media such as Tiktok or YouTube videos, livestreaming is not prerecorded.

Where it Began

Believe it or not, the concept of streaming audio dates back to the 19th century.. A European company known as Theatrophone  created a system to broadcast live opera and theater performances over telephone lines. The system was successful enough to remain popular until the 1930s, when it was supplanted by radio.

In the United States, inventor George Owen Squier patented a system in the 1920s to transmit music over electrical lines. Businesses adopted the new technology to make workplaces more enjoyable and to encourage customers. That was the beginning of Muzak, or what we know today as “elevator music.”

The first modern lhttps://us.moodmedia.com/blog/history-of-muzak/ivestream event was a musical performance in 1993. Some computer scientists at the fabled innovation hub Xerox PARC were members of a band called Severe Tire Damage. They performed live for a (small) global audience, the very first time both audio and video were broadcast live on the Internet.

(Incidentally, if you’ve never heard of Xerox PARC, you should look it up. It was instrumental in developing many aspects of modern computing, including laser printing, Ethernet, personal computers and the mouse, among many other firsts.)

A couple of years later, RealNetworks became the first company to stream a full baseball game over the Internet. Since then streaming channels have expanded exponentially.

Livestreaming Today

Livestreaming as we commonly use the term today refers to live video and audio broadcast over apps such as Twitch. Founded as Justin.tv in 2005, it was designed to encourage user-generated live video content. The pioneering service began with a single channel of founder Justin Kan broadcasting his life 24/7. This led to the term “lifecasting.”

In 2007, Kan relaunched Justin.tv as a network offering thousands of channels to would-be broadcasters. Some of the most popular channels were those streaming video games.

 Four years later, Justin.tv broke out its gaming section into a new service called Twitch.tv. It quickly became the largest video game streaming platform in the world. By 2023, Twitch had more than 7 million unique active streamers.

Challenge Coins for Streamers

It’s no secret that custom challenge coins have migrated from their military origins to many other areas of society. The streaming world is no exception.

As in other areas, coins for streamers can be used to celebrate achievements, reward performance and honor outstanding feats.

Custom challenge coins created in limited editions carry additional meaning and mark the recipient as a member of an elite group.

A great example of that is a recent video by Jason Thor Hall, game director for Pirate Software. In a video, Hall issued a challenge.

“If you manage to gnome me, you get this,” he said, holding up one of only 50 Pirate Software challenge coins made.

Gnoming

If you’re not familiar with the concept of “gnoming,” its simple. It involves interrupting a streamer’s live feed with an animated video of a garden creature saying “I’m not a g’nelf, I’m not a g’noblin, I’m a g’nome, and you’ve been gnomed!”

That appeared to be what Hall was referring to in the video named above. He told the audience that non one had gnomed him in six years of trying.

As of this month, at least one coin has been claimed.

Twitch streamer Michael B. Paulson, known on Twitch as “ThePrimeagen,” recently posted a five-second video of a spinning challenge coin on X (formerly Twitter.) At the end, he slapped it down on the table, revealing it to be one of the Pirate Software coins Hall offered, and said simply, “Challenge accepted.”

Paulson is one of many live streamers who engage with significant numbers of streaming community members. As a result, he, like Hall, has many followers on the service.

There was speculation on social media that the “challenge accepted” meant Paulson was leaving his position at a major video streaming service to become a full-time content creator. We were not able to confirm that speculation as of March 2024.

It’s important to note that challenge coins are not the same as in-game coins offered in Twitch and other streaming media. Those are virtual coins (purchased with real cash) to reward streamers and gamers.

Challenge coins are actual physical objects that are often presented, as Hall did, for achievements within the streaming world. They can be as simple or as elaborate as the designer wishes. They can be presented at conventions, informal get-togethers or awards ceremonies. As the streaming world has grown, so has their popularity.

Challenge Coins Offer Recognition

It all comes down to this. We all want recognition. Everyone likes to receive something that shows others appreciate and recognize our accomplishments.

Custom coins make great rewards for streamers because they offer something tangible, a real-world symbol of achievement in a virtual world. Digital rewards are great too, but sometimes it’s nice to have an actual reward that you can hold in your hand, or display to others outside the digital realm.

If you’d like to find out how you can order great looking custom coins for streamers, call or email us. Many of us at ChallengeCoins4Less.com are gamers and we appreciate the entire virtual world. Let us show you how crafting terrific-looking custom challenge coins for streamers can be even easier than streaming itself!