The Video Game Live Streaming Trends Report 2023: What You Need To Know
What platforms are most popular for streaming? Are esports on their way out? And how can creators and brands benefit from live streaming? Keep reading for a breakdown of the key insights from business intelligence company Stream Hatchet’s Video Game Live Streaming Trends Report 2023.
What is The Video Game Live Streaming Trends Report’s Goal?
This report shares insights from Stream Hatchet, a business intelligence company for esports. They share data from top video game streaming sites, exploring live streaming trends, insights, and performance.
The primary goal is to provide industry-leading analytics to business leaders on how live streaming impacts gaming creators, esports, and the video games industry.
A note from Eduard Montserrat, the CEO of Stream Hatchet, shares, “We are eager to continue to offer market leading insights in the video game streaming industry, and are thankful for our partners continued support and guidance in framing this unique data set for those working in the video games industry.”
In Quarter Three, Stream Hatchet reported 7.6 billion hours watched across all platforms, demonstrating that streaming numbers are stabilizing around the same rate as they were in Quarter Three of 2020. These numbers are 90% greater than pre-pandemic rates in 2019.
What is shifting is platform popularity and esports viewership — Facebook Live declined further by 39%, making it the 5th most popular platform behind AfreecaTV and Kick.
For esports viewership, Twitch attracted 53% of the esports audience this quarter, with YouTube Gaming attracting 40% (giving this platform 12 million additional hours watched in Quarter Three). The remaining 7% was split between Kick, Facebook, and AfreecaTV platforms.
Kick generated 263 million watch hours, 15 and 30 million more than AfreecaTV and Facebook, respectively. Kick was formally introduced in January of this year and generated almost 50% more watch hours in Quarter Three than in Quarter Two, showing its quick rise in popularity.
Even though Kick only holds 3% of the market, it’s already surpassed Facebook Live and AfreecaTV and become the third most-watched platform. The 38% increase between the first and last week of the quarter alone shows that the viewership is growing rapidly every week.
Most-Watched Categories & Popular Games
Interestingly, Twitch and Kick’s most-watched categories are not gaming but the “Just Chatting” category, demonstrating a desire for chatty live streams outside the gaming world.
Kick’s live streaming comprises 66% non-gaming content, which is 2.4 times more than Twitch’s share of 27%. In Quarter Three, half of Kick’s top 10 categories, including Slots & Casinos with 50 million hours and Special Events with 4.6 million, are non-gaming.
However, Twitch only has one non-gaming category in the top 10, with its ranking comprising FPS, MOBA, and action-adventure games.
GTA V retook the top position in gaming during Quarter Three after an increase of 20% in hours watched. A lot of this popularity is from roleplaying servers and helped GTA V take the top spot back from League of Legends, which held first place for two consecutive quarters, even though League of Legends had a peak viewership of nearly 1.4 million viewers on August 20th during its anticipated 2023 Summer Season.
Otherwise, the top games in live-streaming have remained similar, with the only notable change being Teamfight Tactics.
Teamfight Tactics made the leaderboard this quarter with a massive 47% increase in hours watched quarter over quarter. No new launches made the leaderboard during this quarter.
New Game Launches
Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield were the two top-performing game launches this quarter..
Baldur’s Gate 3 was the most-watched game released in the first month of Quarter Three, even outperforming popular Quarter Two launches like Street Fighter 6.
In contrast, Starfield received peak viewership with 607,000 viewers across four platforms, surpassing prolific Quarter Two launches like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Although Baldur’s Gate 3 received more first-month hours watched, Starfield received more mentions on Twitch, with a total of 1.4 million messages throughout Quarter Three.
Baldur’s Gate 3 received 39,000 messages surrounding its August 3rd release date. Comparatively, Starfield has 83,500 Twitch chat messages mentioning the game on its August 31st launch.
Huge live streamers contributed to the success of both games’ first-month viewership, with the top 10 channels responsible for over 25% of the first month’s viewership. Notably, former professional VALORANT player shroud was the most-viewed Starfield channel. During the first month, he generated 2.5 million hours watched, closely followed by CohhCarnage with 2.3 million.
The key takeaway? Live streaming and creating buzz around game launches is imperative to continued growth post-launch. While both games performed well, Starfield topped Baldur’s Gate 3 with Twitch messages, demonstrating the tremendous buzz and word-of-mouth this game received.
The Power of Creator-Driven Events
Creator-driven events continue to earn huge numbers, with ibai’s third edition of La Velada del Año generating 34.1 million hours watched — almost five times the first edition in 2021.
Likewise, Squeezie’s Formula 4 creator event put him on the top creators list by average viewers during this quarter, showing the incredible power of creator-driven events.
La Velada del Año, the boxing event organized by streamer ibai, has exploded since its launch in 2021. In 2021, this event’s debut was the most-viewed creator event, with 4.8 million hours watched.
However, this event has continued to grow exponentially, with the 2023 event generating more than 23.1 million hours — a staggering 4.8 times the number of watch hours in 2021.
Ibai hit a peak of 3.44 million viewers, averaging 2.9 million viewers throughout the eight-hour stream. This is the highest average audience for any event held in 2023, demonstrating the sheer power of creator-driven events.
For brands, this provided ample opportunity for sponsored mentions. During the Twitch event and chat, brands like Alsa and Coca-Cola were mentioned at a minimum of 108 and 142, respectively during the event. The most-mentioned brand was Revolut, with 363 mentions in only five minutes at the end of the night.
Creator collaborations proved powerful also. Streamer riversgg gained nearly eight times the followers before and after ibai’s event. At the end of this quarter, riversgg has 5.3 million Twitch followers — a massive 860,000 more than the beginning of the quarter.
For streamers, this demonstrates the sheer power of collaboration and recurring events viewers look forward to. For brands, you can clearly see the impact of sponsorships integrated into popular live streaming channels.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a marketer or a creator, live streaming shouldn’t be overlooked, regardless of whether you’re in the gaming industry or an entirely different industry. Chatty and non-gaming-related content is becoming increasingly popular in livestream form, so take advantage of this rising wave.
Amy DeYoung is a freelance blog post writer covering influencer marketing and business topics. As the daughter of two business owners, she's been fascinated by all things business from a young age, which led her to graduate from college with a bachelor's degree in business. When she's not typing away, she spends her time reading nonfiction books and mystery novels, baking scrumptious desserts, and playing with her dog.
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What is The Video Game Live Streaming Trends Report’s Goal?
This report shares insights from Stream Hatchet, a business intelligence company for esports. They share data from top video game streaming sites, exploring live streaming trends, insights, and performance.
The primary goal is to provide industry-leading analytics to business leaders on how live streaming impacts gaming creators, esports, and the video games industry.
A note from Eduard Montserrat, the CEO of Stream Hatchet, shares, “We are eager to continue to offer market leading insights in the video game streaming industry, and are thankful for our partners continued support and guidance in framing this unique data set for those working in the video games industry.”
Stabilizing Streaming Hours & Shifting Platform Popularity
In Quarter Three, Stream Hatchet reported 7.6 billion hours watched across all platforms, demonstrating that streaming numbers are stabilizing around the same rate as they were in Quarter Three of 2020. These numbers are 90% greater than pre-pandemic rates in 2019.
What is shifting is platform popularity and esports viewership — Facebook Live declined further by 39%, making it the 5th most popular platform behind AfreecaTV and Kick.
For esports viewership, Twitch attracted 53% of the esports audience this quarter, with YouTube Gaming attracting 40% (giving this platform 12 million additional hours watched in Quarter Three). The remaining 7% was split between Kick, Facebook, and AfreecaTV platforms.
Kick generated 263 million watch hours, 15 and 30 million more than AfreecaTV and Facebook, respectively. Kick was formally introduced in January of this year and generated almost 50% more watch hours in Quarter Three than in Quarter Two, showing its quick rise in popularity.
Even though Kick only holds 3% of the market, it’s already surpassed Facebook Live and AfreecaTV and become the third most-watched platform. The 38% increase between the first and last week of the quarter alone shows that the viewership is growing rapidly every week.
Most-Watched Categories & Popular Games
Interestingly, Twitch and Kick’s most-watched categories are not gaming but the “Just Chatting” category, demonstrating a desire for chatty live streams outside the gaming world.
Kick’s live streaming comprises 66% non-gaming content, which is 2.4 times more than Twitch’s share of 27%. In Quarter Three, half of Kick’s top 10 categories, including Slots & Casinos with 50 million hours and Special Events with 4.6 million, are non-gaming.
However, Twitch only has one non-gaming category in the top 10, with its ranking comprising FPS, MOBA, and action-adventure games.
GTA V retook the top position in gaming during Quarter Three after an increase of 20% in hours watched. A lot of this popularity is from roleplaying servers and helped GTA V take the top spot back from League of Legends, which held first place for two consecutive quarters, even though League of Legends had a peak viewership of nearly 1.4 million viewers on August 20th during its anticipated 2023 Summer Season.
Otherwise, the top games in live-streaming have remained similar, with the only notable change being Teamfight Tactics.
Teamfight Tactics made the leaderboard this quarter with a massive 47% increase in hours watched quarter over quarter. No new launches made the leaderboard during this quarter.
New Game Launches
Baldur’s Gate 3 and Starfield were the two top-performing game launches this quarter..
Baldur’s Gate 3 was the most-watched game released in the first month of Quarter Three, even outperforming popular Quarter Two launches like Street Fighter 6.
In contrast, Starfield received peak viewership with 607,000 viewers across four platforms, surpassing prolific Quarter Two launches like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Although Baldur’s Gate 3 received more first-month hours watched, Starfield received more mentions on Twitch, with a total of 1.4 million messages throughout Quarter Three.
Baldur’s Gate 3 received 39,000 messages surrounding its August 3rd release date. Comparatively, Starfield has 83,500 Twitch chat messages mentioning the game on its August 31st launch.
Huge live streamers contributed to the success of both games’ first-month viewership, with the top 10 channels responsible for over 25% of the first month’s viewership. Notably, former professional VALORANT player shroud was the most-viewed Starfield channel. During the first month, he generated 2.5 million hours watched, closely followed by CohhCarnage with 2.3 million.
The key takeaway? Live streaming and creating buzz around game launches is imperative to continued growth post-launch. While both games performed well, Starfield topped Baldur’s Gate 3 with Twitch messages, demonstrating the tremendous buzz and word-of-mouth this game received.
The Power of Creator-Driven Events
Creator-driven events continue to earn huge numbers, with ibai’s third edition of La Velada del Año generating 34.1 million hours watched — almost five times the first edition in 2021.
Likewise, Squeezie’s Formula 4 creator event put him on the top creators list by average viewers during this quarter, showing the incredible power of creator-driven events.
La Velada del Año, the boxing event organized by streamer ibai, has exploded since its launch in 2021. In 2021, this event’s debut was the most-viewed creator event, with 4.8 million hours watched.
However, this event has continued to grow exponentially, with the 2023 event generating more than 23.1 million hours — a staggering 4.8 times the number of watch hours in 2021.
Ibai hit a peak of 3.44 million viewers, averaging 2.9 million viewers throughout the eight-hour stream. This is the highest average audience for any event held in 2023, demonstrating the sheer power of creator-driven events.
For brands, this provided ample opportunity for sponsored mentions. During the Twitch event and chat, brands like Alsa and Coca-Cola were mentioned at a minimum of 108 and 142, respectively during the event. The most-mentioned brand was Revolut, with 363 mentions in only five minutes at the end of the night.
Creator collaborations proved powerful also. Streamer riversgg gained nearly eight times the followers before and after ibai’s event. At the end of this quarter, riversgg has 5.3 million Twitch followers — a massive 860,000 more than the beginning of the quarter.
For streamers, this demonstrates the sheer power of collaboration and recurring events viewers look forward to. For brands, you can clearly see the impact of sponsorships integrated into popular live streaming channels.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a marketer or a creator, live streaming shouldn’t be overlooked, regardless of whether you’re in the gaming industry or an entirely different industry. Chatty and non-gaming-related content is becoming increasingly popular in livestream form, so take advantage of this rising wave.
Read Stream Hatchet’s full report here.