If your idea of the vision for the era of the pandemic has mainly Twitch stream involved, you are far from alone. Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet have determined that Twitch’s viewership has more than doubled in the space of a year, from “just” 3.1 billion hours in the first quarter of 2020 to 6.3 billion in the same quarter in 2021. interference, but there has been largely steady growth since – that’s a 16.5% jump from the previous quarter alone.
Others don’t have as many bragging opportunities. YouTube Gaming had its own pandemic-related surge, but its viewing hours fell sharply in the first quarter to 1.37 billion hours. They are now lower than they were before everyone was asked to stay home, the data shows. This gave Facebook Gaming the opportunity to close the gap. While its audience of 1.06 billion hours made it the smallest of the top three, that represented steady growth that hasn’t slowed since the peak in early 2020.
Streamlabs / Stream Hatchet
For Twitch, at least some of that growth came from non-gaming streams. “Just Chatting” was the most viewed category on the Amazon-owned service for the second quarter in a row, and now accounts for 12% of all people watch on the platform. Grand Theft Auto V and League of Legends were distant finalists. The battle royale has struck Garena’s Free Fire led the YouTube Gaming audience, while PUBG Mobile continues to be the star attraction of Facebook Gaming.
The skyrocketing and continuous change in content isn’t completely surprising. Twitch was already dominating live streaming, and it has become even more essential as musicians and other non-gaming creators. flocked to the platform as a substitute for concerts and in-person discussions. Even gaming-focused streamers also had more reasons to use Just Chatting – if they can’t socialize in person, they might as well make money through virtual chats. The question, of course, is whether or not a live streaming service can maintain this momentum once mass vaccinations make it safer to go out.
