Honda joins Twitch Rivals as 1st auto partner

Honda has announced a partnership as the first-ever, exclusive automotive partner of Twitch Rivals, the popular tournament series.

Aiming to advance its presence in gaming and esports, Honda wants to connect with gamers at all levels, including Twitch’s growing young adult audience. This is good for Twitch because it isn’t easy to pick up new sponsors or continue with existing ones during a tough time for the gaming industry. Twitch itself had 500 layoffs in January.

The new Honda Twitch Rivals year-round partnership is highlighted by the “Chat’s Civic Mods” interactive segment that will be featured in multiple episodes launching July 18 on Twitch. In each of the upcoming Chat’s Civic Mods episodes, the Twitch Rivals fan community will have the opportunity to digitally customize a new 2025 Civic hybrid sedan through chat polls – timed to the vehicle’s recent arrival at Honda dealerships.

The final Twitch Rivals crowdsourced, custom-designed Civic hybrid sedan design will be unveiled at TwitchCon 2024 in San Diego from September 20 to September 22, 2024. The customized Civic hybrid will then be given away to one lucky Twitch Community member as part of TwitchCon weekend.

“Honda joining Twitch Rivals as the first-ever and exclusive automotive partner is an important next step in our growing relationship with the gaming community that kicked off more than 10 years ago,” said Megan Amic, manager of media strategy, American Honda Motor Co., in a statement. “Honda’s new expanded partnership with Twitch Rivals will introduce our fun new fuel-efficient gateway vehicles, like the new 2025 Honda Civic hybrid, to GenZennial gaming fans.”

“We are pleased to welcome Honda as our exclusive automotive partner of Twitch Rivals,” said Lou Garate, Amazon Ads head of properties, in a statement. “This partnership will enable Honda to support creators and connect with the passionate Twitch Rivals community to deliver memorable and personalized moments. The partnership also positions Honda to reach the millions of people who come together on Twitch to connect, engage and create live entertainment experiences together.”

Additional key elements of the new Honda Twitch Rivals partnership include a collection of custom, in-stream Honda integrations throughout the season. The Twitch Rivals community will experience Honda’s “Charged Up Chat” highlighting top comments from the Twitch community, Channel Skins featuring Honda vehicle messaging, in-stream Chatbot interaction where fans can learn more about Honda with !honda, Chat Plays Games – where the chat community will be presented with Honda-branded Maze and Memory interstitial games that allow them to source decisions to beat the game together, and a Honda-branded Chat emote.

Engaging with a valuable audience

Honda youth initiatives, including gaming and esports, have helped to make the Honda Civic an unparalleled success.

Honda entered the video gaming space over a decade ago and, since then, has partnered with some of the most storied video gaming franchises, including Forza, Guitar Hero Live and Hearthstone Team Brawl. In 2019, Honda significantly grew its gaming footprint by establishing a presence in esports with Team Liquid (now Team Liquid Honda in the LCS) and jumpstarting a growing relationship with Twitch with 70%of its Twitch community between the ages of 18-34, as part of Honda’s gaming strategy.

Paired closely with Honda gaming initiatives, the 11th-generation Civic serves as a gateway to the Honda brand and America’s most popular vehicle with Gen Z buyers, first-time new car buyers as well as multicultural customers.

Honda has been a Twitch sponsor since 2019, but this is the first year it is an exclusive automotive partner for Twitch Rivals.