Twitch replaces IRL and Creative with ten more specific categories

As part of an ever-evolving process of allowing creative streamers to find their target audiences, Twitch has been allowing users to stream non-gaming activities for quite some time. However, it may be that the IRL and Creative categories just weren't as specific as the Twitch crew had hoped — or perhaps they become more popular than they imagined. Either way, Twitch has announced plans to completely removed the IRL and Creative categories, opting to replace them with ten different categories that should help specify the type of content being streamed.

"In mid-September we will remove IRL and Creative as categories and add more than 10 new categories," the company explained, "which will let you better describe the content of your streams. These categories will be added to the Browse page, which will be updated to show gaming and non-gaming categories in a single view."

There are the ten new categories, with descriptions straight from the Twitch team:

Art - For all the artists creating paintings, illustrations, animation, comics, photography, and more, whether you’re using digital or traditional methods or techniques.
Hobbies & Crafts - Use this category when you’re crafting real world objects or working on DIY projects. Includes making costumes, sewing, sculpture, LEGO, woodwork, metalwork, and more.
Food & Drink - From cooking to eating and everything in between, this category is for anything related to the creation, culture, or consumption of food and drinks.
Music & Performing Arts - Use this category when you’re dancing, singing, composing music, playing an instrument, and more.
Beauty & Body Art - Use this category when you’re streaming makeup, skincare, bodypainting, tattooing, and more.
Science & Technology - Use this category when you’re streaming activities like software development, game design, science experiments, engineering, or robotics.
Just Chatting - This category is for conversations between streamers and viewers, like when you’re warming up at the start of your stream, doing Q&As, or live vlogging.
Travel & Outdoors - Whether you’re exploring a new city or just hanging out in your hometown, this category covers all your walking-and-talking needs.
Sports & Fitness - From team sports to training solo, this category includes everything you’d do in a gym and more.
Tabletop RPGs - Finally a place to stream all the tabletop RPGs you love.
Special Events - This is where you’ll find big events like TwitchCon, E3, and PAX, as well as special announcements from game developers and publishers.
Talk Shows & Podcasts - This category name gets an update for all the podcasters out there.
ASMR - A centralized place for ASMR content.

Not only are the new changes meant to help viewers find the sort of streams they'd most enjoy, they're also meant to help streamers build broader audiences by narrowing the focus of their content. Of course, the new categories also have the added benefit of increasing the scope of Twitch itself, with dedicated places for people who want to sports, music, or science specifically.

Twitch notes that the new categories are set to hit the service sometime in mid September, but the crew notes that "timing is subject to change." However things work out, fans can always check on the latest by heading over to Twitch itself — Shacknews' Twitch channel is a good place to start — or by following Twitch on Twitter.