Would competitive Zwift racing (online cycling) work as a Twitch stream niche?
I’ve been thinking about starting a Twitch channel around Zwift racing, but I genuinely can’t decide whether there’s actually an audience for it.
For those who don’t know it: Zwift is basically an online cycling platform where you ride a real bike on an indoor smart trainer, and the trainer simulates resistance based on the virtual terrain. So when you climb in-game, it actually gets harder in real life. It looks like a game from the outside, but physically it’s absolutely real. Your power output, heart rate, weight and fitness all matter.
The racing side is surprisingly serious. There are organized races all day long, team tactics, breakaways, sprint finishes, climbing specialists, drafting mechanics, powerups, race categories, rankings, etc. Some races honestly feel closer to esports mixed with endurance sport than to a “fitness app”.
There are categories from A to E based mainly on performance level. I race in B category, and I usually finish around 2nd - 4th place depending on the field and the course. The races can get pretty intense, especially in crit races where the pace is nonstop from start to finish.
My question is: do you think this kind of content has Twitch potential at all?
Not necessarily huge numbers, but enough to build a niche community around competitive online cycling. I can imagine people who are into cycling, training data, tactics, pain cave setups, endurance sports or even esports maybe enjoying it, but I honestly have no clue whether it works as spectator content long term.
Would you watch something like this, or do you think it’s too niche for Twitch?