HBO Go in the context of Game streaming

The live streaming of video games is an activity where people broadcast themselves playing games to a live audience online. The practice became popular in the mid-2010s on the US-based site Twitch, before growing to YouTube, Facebook, China-based sites Huya Live, DouYu, and Bilibili, and other services. By 2014, Twitch streams had more traffic than HBO's online streaming service, HBO Go. Professional streamers often combine high-level play and entertaining commentary, and earn income from sponsors, subscriptions, ad revenue, and donations.

Both AAA and indie developers have circumvented rising development costs by utilizing the free advertising live streaming provides. Independent titles such as Fall Guys, Rocket League, and Among Us are examples of games that have experienced a huge increase in player base as a result of streaming. Esports have also gained significant traction and attention from the accessibility of live streaming, and streaming has even been used as a method to raise awareness of social issues and money for charity.

HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service, a proprietary unit of Warner Bros. Streaming on behalf of Home Box Office, Inc., which is itself a division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The platform offers content from the libraries of Warner Bros., Discovery Channel, HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Animal Planet, TBS, TNT, Eurosport, and their related brands. HBO Max first launched in the United States on May 27, 2020. HBO Max is the fourth most-subscribed video on demand streaming media service, after Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix, with 128 million paid memberships worldwide.

The service also carries first-run original programming under the "Max Originals" banner, programming from the HBO pay television service, and content acquired via either third-party library deals (such as those with film studios for pay television rights) or co-production agreements (including, among others, those with BBC Studios and Sesame Workshop). When the service was first launched as HBO Max, it succeeded both HBO Now, a previous HBO SVOD service; and HBO Go, the TV Everywhere streaming platform for HBO pay television subscribers. In the United States, HBO Now subscribers and HBO pay television subscribers were migrated to HBO Max at no additional charge, subject to availability and device support. HBO Max also supplanted the streaming component of DC Entertainment's DC Universe service, with its original series being migrated to HBO Max as Max Originals. The HBO Max service began to expand into international markets in 2021.

Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO) is an American multinational media and entertainment company owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its Streaming & Studios division. Founded on February 28, 1973 by Charles Dolan and based out of WarnerMedia's former corporate headquarters at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in the West Side of Manhattan, its main properties include its namesake pay television network Home Box Office (HBO), sister service Cinemax, HBO Films, and the former HBO Go streaming service, and their secondary HBO-branded service, HBO Max, is operated under sister subsidiary Warner Bros. Discovery Streaming, which shares principal management with Home Box Office, Inc. It has also licensed or maintained ownership interests in international versions of HBO and Cinemax, most of which are managed by Home Box Office, Inc.

The company has achieved several pioneering innovations in the cable television industry, including its satellite uplink of HBO as the first television network in the world to transmit through that technology, and the development of original programming for pay television.