Gaming Video Content Market Statistics 2021
The Gaming video content market has become incredibly popular in the last decade with platforms like Twitch and YouTube capitalizing on the rise of both video games and video streaming. In fact, the revenue for the Gaming video content (GVC) market reached $6.5 billion in 2019 making it an incredibly lucrative industry. And, at the top of this industry, Twitch is still sitting comfortably. They brought in a 65% share of hours viewed in 2020 as well as a 72% share of hours streaming when compared to their rivals. They also generated more revenue in 2019 than their biggest rival YouTube – even though, overall, Twitch has a much smaller audience.
<em>Sources: SuperData Research, Business of Apps</em>
Twitch Viewer Growth
Twitch Channel Growth
Twitch generated more revenue in
Twitch generated more revenue in 2019 than YouTube ($1.54B vs $1.46B) despite a much smaller audience
Twitch has a
Twitch is the most popular platform for GVC with a 65% share of hours viewed and 72% hours streamed against streaming rivals
The audience for Gaming Video content grew to
The audience for gaming video content (GVC) grew by 5% to reach 944 million people in 2019
The revenue of the gaming video content (GVC) market reached
In 2019, the revenue of the gaming video content (GVC) market reached 6.5 billion U.S. dollars
Overview
Gaming video content has seen a significant uptake in recent years with platforms like Twitch and YouTube leading the way in this form of new media. The audience for this kind of content has grown to over 944 million people, a 5% growth from the previous year – and it shows no signs of slowing down either. The GVC market also made an impressive $6.5 billion in 2019, making it more than just a few videos on the internet.
Sources: SuperData Research
- In 2017, the number of gaming video content viewers in the U.S. is expected to grow by 18% from the expected 147 million viewers in 2016. (Quartz, 2015)
- As of March 2018, League of Legends is taking the lead as the most watched games on Twitch with 88.3 million total hours. (Newzoo, 2018)
- Taking the second on the list of the most watched games on Twitch is Overwatch with 31.9 million total hours. (Newzoo, 2018)
- Ranked as first on the list of the most watched games on YouTube is League of Legends, still, with 16.3 million total hours. (Newzoo, 2018)
- Taking the second place on the list of the most watched games on YouTube is DOTA 2 with 3.3 million total hours. (Newzoo, 2018)
- 54% of the accounted share or distribution of gaming video content viewers in the U.S were male.
- 30% of gamers in the U.S. say they watch Let’s Play live streams and Let’s Play gaming videos regularly as of December 2016. (Statista, 2017)
- 80% of teen gamers in the U.S. use YouTube as a source for viewing gaming related content. (gamesindustry.biz, 2016)
- Twitch is the leading platform for viewing gaming video content worldwide, accounting 54% of the gaming video content platform revenue in 2017. (SuperData Research, 2018)
- YouTube had an estimated 653 million viewers of content related to gaming videos. (Wccftech, 2017)
- Twitch had an estimate of 212 million viewers of content related to gaming videos. (Wccftech, 2017)
- Twitch had an average of 6% more viewers in Q4 of 2017 from 736.7 thousand viewers in Q3 of 2017. (Streamlabs, 2018)
- YouTube Gaming Live had 8.7% more viewers in the Q4 of 2017 from 281.2 thousand viewers in Q3 of 2017. (Streamlabs, 2018
- The largest 37% of the gamers watching gaming video content are from Asia, followed by 25% from Europe. (Various sources, 2017)
Streaming & Tipping
For a growing number of streamers, this has become their full-time job and main source of income. A big part of that is when viewers choose to “tip” their favorite streamers while they’re live. While this is a common feature on Twitch, YouTube doesn’t have a similar system in place – which may account for why YouTube had only 9.3k streamers in 2017 compared to Twitch’s 15k. And, in 2017, there were 101 million tipping instances recorded – an impressive 20% increase on the previous year.
Sources: Techcrunch, Streamlabs
- As of April 2017, tipping on Twitch alone had brought in $12-14 million worth of revenue
- Video streaming tipping volume recorded by Streamlabs hit 141 million instances in 2018
- There are 101 million tipping instances recorded in 2017, that’s a 20% increase from the recorded tipping instances in 2016. (Techcrunch, 2018)
- Partnered streamers via streamlabs earned 29.8 cents per each follower in 2016, up from 17.3 cents in the previous year. (Streamlabs, 2017)
- Non-partnered streamers via Streamlabs earned 19.1 cents per each follower in 2016, up from 9.9 cents in 2015. (Streamlabs, 2017)
- YouTube Gaming Live only had 9.3 thousand concurrent streamers in Q2 of 2017 compared to Twitch’s 15 thousand concurrent streamers in the same measured period. (Streamlabs, 2018)
Youtube Gaming
While YouTube has easily become one of the biggest video platforms on the internet, it still hasn’t managed to completely corner the gaming video content market. Despite this, YouTube’s most popular gaming channel, PewDiePie has over 107 million subscribers compared to Ninja on Twitch who only has 15.9 million.
Sources: StatSheep
- Minecraft was the most popular game for YouTube videos in 2019 with 100.2 billion views in total
- 73% of YouTube gamers say they enjoy watching others play games on YouTube
- >20 million gaming how-to videos have been uploaded to YouTube
- 74% Of YouTube gamers say they watch YouTube videos to learn how to get better at a game
- 66% of female YouTube gamers watch gaming videos on YouTube when they want to hear from people they can relate to
- 48% of YouTube gamers say they spend more time watching gaming videos on YouTube than playing games
- 2 of the top 5 YouTube channels with the most subscriber are gaming-related
- 56% of YouTube gamers say YouTube is where they connect with their gaming community
- PewDiePie is the most popular gaming channel on YouTube with 107,000,000 subscribers
- Video contents related to Minecraft were viewed 4.1 billion times on YouTube, making it the gaming franchise with the most number of monthly views in May 2015. (Limelight Networks, 2015)
- In May 2015, video contents related to the Grand Theft Auto franchise were viewed 1.7 billion times on YouTube. (Limelight Networks, 2015)
- 68% of users who used YouTube Gaming were male. (Statista, 2016)
- 27% of YouTube users from Latin America use YouTube to watch game trailers as of Q4 of 2016. (GlobalWebIndex, 2017)
- 24% of YouTube users from Asia Pacific use YouTube to watch game trailers as of Q4 of 2016. (GlobalWebIndex, 2017)
- 19% of YouTube users from North America use YouTube to watch game trailers as of Q4 of 2016. (GlobalWebIndex, 2017)
- As of March 2018, JuegaGerman took the second place among the the list of the most popular YouTube gaming channel, with 24.98 million subscriber counts. (Social Blade, 2018)
Twitch
Twitch has seen some incredible growth increasing its average concurrent viewers from 102,000 in 2012 to over 2 million in 2020. With such an increase in viewership, it’s not surprising that there has also been a significant increase in the number of channels operating on the platform as well. In 2012, there were 2,200 channels on the platform, this number has increased to 83,600 in 2020. And, the most followed streamer on Twitch? That would be Ninja with an eye-watering 15.9 million followers.
Sources: Sullygnome, Twitch Tracker
Average concurrent channels on Twitch
Average concurrent viewers on Twitch
- As of 2017, there were 124 million clips stored on Twitch, with 1.7 billion views collectively
- There are 3.64 million average monthly Twitch broadcasters
- 65% of the Twitch userbase is male
- Twitch users watch an average of 95 minutes per day
- League of Legends is the all-time most-viewed game on Twitch with 29 billion views
- The highest peak concurrent Twitch views in 2020 was 533,000 for TheGregf
- There were 3.8 million Twitch broadcasters over February 2020
- Ninja is the most followed streamer on Twitch with 15.9 million followers
- There are now a total of 45,365 Twitch Partners in 2020, up from 35,580 in 2019
- Over 808 Billion minutes have been watched on Twitch in 2020, up from 660 Billion in 2019
- summit1g is the most popular Twitch channels as of February 2018, with 2.78 million subscribers. (Social Blade, 2018)
- riotgames comes in second on the list among the most popular Twitch channels as of February 2018, with 2.73 million subscribers. (Social Blade, 2018)
- syndicate places third among the list of the most popular Twitch channels as of February 2018, with 2.5 million counts of subscribers. (Social Blade, 2018)
- In Q1 of 2017, the number of tipping instances on Twitch grew to 22.55 million, up from 20.58 million in Q4 2016. (Streamlabs, 2017)
- 65% of users on Twitch using the platform for streaming were male. (Statista, 2016)
- In October of 2016, Twitch had 216.63 thousand monthly active streamers. (Streamlabs, 2018)
- In December 2017, the number of monthly active streamers grew by 56% from 498.4 thousand monthly active streamers in the previous year. (Streamlabs, 2018)
- Twitch viewers spent 355 billion hours watching videos on the platform in 2017, that’s 32% more from 241 billion hours in 2015. (Banyan Hill, 2018)
- The most popular game among Twitch viewers is League of Legends since its introduction in 2009 (Gamoloco, 2018)