• Twitch invited Business Insider for a first look at its new headquarters in San Francisco, California.
  • The nine-floor office is a gamer’s paradise, with two six-person competitive gaming rooms, two live-streaming rooms, and a full arcade.
  • “What we really wanted to do was bring Twitch to life,” Twitch’s Chief Marketing Officer Kate Jhaveri told Business Insider.
  • Below is a behind-the-scenes look at Twitch’s new headquarters.

This week, Amazon-owned live-streaming platform Twitch invited Business Insider for a first-look at its new headquarters in San Francisco, California.

The nine-floor floor office is a gamer’s paradise, with two six-person competitive gaming rooms, two live-streaming rooms, and a full arcade (We did confirm halfway through our tour that actual work was getting done).

Twitch’s Chief Marketing Officer, Kate Jhaveri, told Business Insider about the thought process behind many of the design decisions.

“What we really wanted to do was bring Twitch to life. Both the feeling of entering Twitch – which sometimes feels like entering another land. We wanted our office to have that feeling,” Jhaveri said. “We also wanted to bring to life a lot of the great content that exists on Twitch today – whether that’s games the community plays, shows and movies they watch, or art and music that they make every day.”

Here's a look at Twitch's new San Francisco headquarters:


Twitch's new office is located on Bush Street in San Francisco's Financial District.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Upon entering, Vault Boy — from the popular "Fallout" franchise — salutes all visitors. As you might expect, there are plenty of video game characters throughout the Twitch office.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Twitch asks visitors to sign a non-disclosure agreement at the front desk when they visit. When we visited, that desk was all decked out with festive stockings and lights for the holidays.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

That NDA is the only way to get past these glass gates.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

We got right into the good stuff. The new Twitch office has two 6v6 PC gaming rooms, as competitive gaming is a popular pastime for many on the staff.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Popular competitive games among employees are "League of Legends," "Fortnite," "Dota 2," and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," otherwise known as "PUBG."

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

There's even stadium seating in each of the gaming rooms for an audience to watch.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

The office has two broadcast rooms for popular streamers who visit the new HQ. Each room has all the audio and video equipment needed for a livestream — there's even a green-screen on the back wall!

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Of course, a new tech office wouldn't be complete without a coffee bar.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Something different about Twitch's coffee program is that they don't serve cappuccinos — only "Kappucinos." It's an ode to "Kappa," a popular emoticon used on Twitch that's become the company's unofficial brand mascot.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Another popular emote (which is the term for emojis used in Twitch chat) is right outside the cafe window.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Next to the coffee bar, employees can let off some steam at Flynn's Arcade, named after the arcade in "Tron."

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Flynn's includes arcade classics like "Street Fighter," "Donkey Kong," and multiple pinball machines.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

There are also consoles, like Nintendo 64 and GameCube, plugged into old school CRT monitors. A Twitch spokesperson said that these monitors are actually better for fighting games, since the response rate is faster than LCD screens.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Board games are available at Flynn's as well.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Something to look out for at Twitch’s new office: characters from Pac-Man. They're hiding everywhere ...

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

... like on the floor on the way to the kitchen ...

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

... and hidden inside the snack drawer.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

The office has a full commercial kitchen where roughly 2,000 meals are served each day, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are always available as well.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

The day we visited, garlic and sage chicken and roasted Brussels sprouts were being served.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Murals created by Twitch streamers cover many of the office walls. This mural in the dining room area was made by Twitch streamer purplealmonds.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

The dining area is also where Twitch holds its all-hands meeting every Thursday. The rest of the week, these screens play live Twitch channels.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Twitch's new office has nine floors. In the elevator bank on each floor, there's a black and white mural that changes as you ascend to the top.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Getting closer ...

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

... we made it!

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Actual work does get done at Twitch. On average, more than a million people are tuning into Twitch at any given moment. It takes plenty of work to make sure things run smoothly.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

We came across some employees in the middle of a big meeting.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

If employees' work is ever interrupted with computer troubles, not a problem — Twitch has a walk-up IT center.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

And if they forget their charger or their headphones, they can head to the Twitch vending machine, swipe their employee badge, and voilá.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

All of Twitch's meeting rooms are themed, either as a tribute to gaming or pop-culture that gamers love. This is the "Wayne's World" room.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

There's also a Viridian Forest room, a reference from "Pokémon."

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Here's the "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" room.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Our favorite was the "Stranger Things" room.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

It even came equipped with that creepy rotary phone.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Less-spooky lounges can be found on each of the floors.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Here's another lounge area. This one is beach themed.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Twitch employees can catch some sun on one of three outdoor decks.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

There were a couple more things we learned on our tour. First, each new employee gets a balloon on their first day so that other employees know to come up and introduce themselves.

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Also, if you haven't guessed by now, Twitch loves purple. Much of the new office features Twitch purple, even down to the exposed wiring!

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider

Fin!

Foto: sourceNick Bastone/Business Insider