Twitch and Facebook Gaming Experience Significant Growth in Livestreaming Hours
Livestreaming saw significant growth across multiple platforms in 2021. Both Twitch and Facebook Gaming experienced around 45 percent year-over-year growth compared to 2020.
Twitch witnessed a surge in hours watched, increasing from 17 billion hours in 2020 to 24 billion hours in 2021. Meanwhile, Facebook Gaming showed even more growth, with a 47 percent increase, going from 3.6 billion to 5.3 billion hours watched, according to Rainmaker, StreamElements’ analytics partner.
Most Popular Categories on Twitch in 2021
The category “Just Chatting” dominated Twitch throughout 2021, accumulating a total of 3.1 billion hours watched. This is more than 1 billion hours above the second-place title, Grand Theft Auto V, and 1.3 billion hours more than League of Legends in the third spot. Fortnite was the only other title that surpassed the 1 billion hours watched mark, with VALORANT rounding out the top five at approximately 949 million hours watched.
Individually, xQc maintained his position as the top streamer on Twitch for a second consecutive year with over 261 million hours watched in 2021. This is a significant increase from 143.6 million hours watched in 2020.
Shuffling Among Top 10 Streamers
The ranking of the top 10 streamers in terms of hours watched underwent a significant shuffle in 2021. Only six names from the previous year’s list remained. xQc maintained his first-place position, while Gaules dropped to third and loud_coringa occupied the second spot. The list also saw the return of shroud, along with the addition of MontanaBlack88 and HasanAbi.
YouTube Gaming’s Impressive Performance
YouTube Gaming also showcased exceptional performance, with the platform reporting 800 billion gaming-related views, over 90 million hours of live streaming, and over 250 million uploads in the first half of 2021. However, end-of-year figures are yet to be released.
Trovo’s Steady Growth on the Streaming Platform
StreamElements partnered with Streams Charts to provide detailed insights into the viewership of the streaming platform Trovo. During Q3 2021, Trovo experienced a staggering 715 percent increase in viewership, reaching 73 million hours watched. The platform has been enjoying continuous quarter-over-quarter growth since its beta launch in July 2020.