 YouTube is close to securing a $1 billion buyout of video game streaming startup Twitch. Letting people watch others play video games. I'm a little at sea on this one. Make no mistake, it could be the best billion dollars it ever spends. I'm Adrienne Jeffries and this is 90 Seconds on the Verge. Twitch launched in 2011 as a subsidiary of Justin.tv. Since then, it has grown at a phenomenal rate. By the end of 2013, there were 45 million unique viewers watching a total of over 200 million hours per month. It even surpasses Hulu and Facebook in peak internet traffic. But Twitch admits that it's gotten to the point where it quote, can't keep up with the growth. That's where Google comes in. YouTube has the technology and infrastructure to help Twitch scale. Where Twitch shines and where YouTube absolutely doesn't is a venerable live streaming community. Last year, a League of Legends event attracted 32 million viewers with 8.5 million watching simultaneously. Google's efforts at turning YouTube into a live streaming destination have been fruitless so far. Highlighted by the universally maligned YouTube Music Awards. That's the benefit for both companies, so what's the catch? Top of the list is copyright. Many of the prominent Twitch streamers play their games against a background of unlicensed music. Small companies with limited budgets aren't particularly attractive for infringement claims, but what happens when it's backed by YouTube's deep pockets? Just ask Viacom, which sued the company for a billion dollars after it was bought by Google in 2006. It just settled in March. For more on Twitch, check out The Verge. Coming up, Twitch plays Pokemon, but Pokemon fights back, and there's blood on the road to Viridian City.