Twitch dominated the livestream industry in Q2 2020, with over 5 billion hours spent watching content on the platform.
This comes from StreamElements, who alongside its analytics partner Arsenal.gg, has released its Q2 livestreaming report, State of the Stream.
The report contains further good news for Twitch – Overall hours watched on Twitch jumped 56 per cent from Q1, with views on the platform peaking in April, at 1.8 billion hours watched.
This is also a year-on-year increase of 60 per cent, based on comparing June 2019, at 939 million hours watched, with June 2020, at around 1.5 billion hours watched.
Twitch isn’t alone in seeing increased engagement during lockdown. Facebook Gaming had significant momentum, with a 75 per cent increase in hours watched in Q2 2020, compared to Q1 2020. Hours watched in Q2 peaked on Facebook Gaming at 342 million hours watched in May.
Facebook’s streaming platform also saw 200% year-on-year growth, based on comparing June 2019, at 111 million hours, with June 2020 at 334 million hours.
Twitch’s most popular channel remains one totally unrelated to video games – the social channel Just Chatting, which increased 94 per cent in hours watched from January to June 2020, jumping from 86 million hours watched to 167 million. The channel also grew 175 per cent from 181 million hours in Q1 of 2019, to 498 million in Q2 of 2020.
The now almost 7 year old title Grand Theft Auto V continues its seeming immortality as the third most popular channel, with hours watched not dipping at all in 2020, making it the year’s most viewed action game so far.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare got a huge boost from the March 10 release of battle royale mode Call of Duty: Warzone, placing it at 76 million hours watched in June 2020, compared to just 7 million in January the same year.
Music & Performing Arts have also seen a huge boost in views, now in 16th place with a 268 per cent increased in hours watched from January to June 2020, with a peak viewership of 25 million hours watched in May. Additionally, amid the social distancing measures brought on by COVID-19, viewers are getting their nature hit on Twitch, with the Travel & Outdoors category increasing 183 per cent in hours watched from January to June 2020.
