Gamers Spent 8.4B Hours Watching Twitch This Year So Far, Almost a 40% Increase YoY

Last Updated on Maggio 4, 2021 by Redazione Scommesse

Last year, gamers and eSports fans worldwide watched a record-breaking 27.9 billion hours of content across all live streaming platforms, 78% more than before the pandemic. As the world’s leading community for gamers, Twitch led the audience in live broadcasts, with a total of 18.4 billion hours watched in 2020.

However, after setting another record for most hours watched in one quarter with 5.4 billion hours watched in Q4 2020, Twitch’s viewership count continued growing significantly this year.

According to data presented by 123scommesse, viewers worldwide spent 8.4 billion hours watching content on Twitch since January, almost 40% more compared to the same period in 2020.

Twitch Accounted for 70% of Total Hours Watched on All Streaming Platforms in Q1 2021

Over the years, the Twitch audience increased significantly. Between 2012 and 2019, the number of hours viewers worldwide spent watching Twitch content jumped from 1.2 billion to 11 billion.

As people turned to video games to keep them entertained and socialize during the lockdowns, this figure surged to 18.7 billion hours in 2020. However, in 2021, the figures skyrocketed even higher, with Twitch setting a new record for most hours watched in one quarter.

The TwitchTracker data showed that 6.3 billion hours were watched on the platform in the first quarter of 2021, the highest audience engagement with the streaming platform to date. Moreover, that was 70% of total hours watched on all streaming platforms in this period.

In April, gamers and eSports fans spent another 2.1 billion hours watching the content on the streaming platform, with the total number of hours hitting 8.4 billion in the first week of May.

The SimilarWeb data revealed the United States accounted for nearly 23% of Twitch’s global traffic. Germany ranked as the second-largest market with a further 6.7% share. Canada, France, and Russia followed with a 4.4%, 4.3%, and 4% share in global traffic, respectively.

Grand Theft Auto V Leads in Total Hours Watched, Call of Duty: Warzone hit 1.6 Million Peak Viewers

Statistics show Grand Theft Auto V was the most-watched Twitch game, with a total of 235.7 million hours watched in the last month. League of Legends ranked second with over 156 million hours watched in the last 30 days, while Call of Duty: Warzone follows with 100.1 million hours.

As the most-streamed and fourth most-watched game on Twitch, Fortnite witnessed a 17% drop in the last month, with the total number of watched hours slipping to 94.8 million.

However, Call of Duty: Warzone tops the ranking of games with the largest peak viewers in the last 30 days. Statistics show the famous battle royal game hit 1.6 million peak viewers, followed by Grand Theft Auto V and League of Legends with 1.1 million and 906 thousand peak viewers, respectively.