Gaming Video Content Market Statistics 2022

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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.
Sources: SuperData Research, Business of Apps

Twitch Viewer Growth

Average Concurrent Channels on Twitch

Twitch Channel Growth

Average Concurrent Viewers on Twitch

Twitch is the most popular platform to watch live streams on with

0 %
of respondents choosing them over YouTube and Facebook Gaming

As of 2021, Twitch is the most popular platform to watch live streams on with 47% of respondents choosing them over YouTube and Facebook Gaming

Statista, 2021

Twitch has

0 Million
hours watched in Q3 2021

In 2021, 5,787 million hours were watched on Twitch in comparison to Facebook which had 1,293 million hours, making it the most popular GVC platform.

Statista, 2021

League of Legends is the most popular Twitch Gaming category with

0 Million
hours watched in 2022

League of Legends is the most popular Twitch Gaming category with 63.65 Million hours watched in January 2022.

escharts, 2022

PewDiePie was ranked first as the most popular Youtube gaming channel with

0 Million
subscribers in September 2021

PewDiePie was ranked first as the most popular Youtube gaming channel with 110 million subscribers. Samuel de Luque Batuecas (Vegetta777) was ranked second with 32.6 million

Statista, 2022

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

2022 Update

In Q3 2021, approximately 17.1 million hours were streamed on Facebook Gaming, a decrease in comparison to the 20.8 million hours in Q2 2021.

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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

2022 Update

Although FreeFire LTM had the lead in live streamed gaming sessions in March 2021, xQc (currently xQcOW) took second, third and fourth place with a registered total of 7 million hours watched across the three sessions. In December 202, xQc was the most watched live streamer worldwide.

2022 Update

NICKMERCS who is in partnership with SeatGeek has the leading brand-sponsored live segment in gaming sessions across streaming platforms with 265 thousand hours in September 2021.

2022 Update

As of March 2021, Valorant produced by Riot, was among the most streamed games on Twitch and in January 2021 it reached 61 million hours watched across popular live streaming platforms, this is an increase of 27% compared to previous months. Valorant had 3.26 million hours streamed on Twitch worldwide.

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Business of Apps, 2020
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Statista, 2020
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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

2022 Update

In Q2 2021, Inoxtag was the most popular Youtube Gaming Live streamer with 11.64 million hours watched. Jun Channel came second with 10.9 million hours.

2022 Update

In Q3 2021, Youtube Gaming Live saw a decline in hours of content watched with 1.31 billion hours accumulated, this is a 13% decrease since the previous quarter.

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The Verge, 2020
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Google/ Ipsos, 2020
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YouTube data, 2020
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Google/ Ipsos Connect, 2020
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YouTube Data, 2020
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StatSheep, 2020
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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

2022 Update
Average Concurrent Viewers on Twitch

Average Concurrent Viewers on Twitch

Statista, 2021
2022 Update

As of December 2021, the most popular games on Twitch by average weekly viewers were Grand Theft Auto 5 with an average of 158 thousand concurrent viewers for the last 7 days.

2022 Update

The leading game by number of hours watched in January 2022 on Twitch was Escape the Tarkov with 42.6 million hours watched. League of Legends came in second with 35.5 million hours watched.

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Twitch Tracker, 2020
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