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Live Streaming Industry Shows 12% Growth in 2024, Nearing Pandemic Peak

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Live Streaming Industry Shows 12% Growth in 2024, Nearing Pandemic Peak

Live streaming viewership reached 32.5 billion hours watched in 2024, approaching the industry’s 2021 pandemic-era record of 34.6 billion hours, according to new data from Stream Hatchet

Analysts note this 12% year-over-year increase from 2023’s 28.9 billion hours demonstrates the industry’s continued expansion beyond pandemic-driven growth. The sector maintains more than double its pre-pandemic audience levels, with weekly averages hitting 613 million hours. 

When examining week-by-week numbers, 2024’s viewership remains stable and follows normal seasonal trends, with no unusual dips or signs of decline. Current viewership represents a 105% increase from 2019’s pre-pandemic figure of 15.8 billion hours.


Source: Stream Hatchet

Platform Competition Intensifies Amid Market Growth

Market leader Twitch maintains its dominant position with a 61.1% share, generating 21.1 billion hours watched despite experiencing a 3% year-over-year decline from 21.7 billion hours in 2023. 

The platform demonstrates quarter-over-quarter stability in Q2-Q4 2024, though it loses over half a billion hours watched from Q1 to Q2, dropping from 5.66 billion to 5.10 billion hours.

Source: Stream Hatchet

YouTube Gaming secures 22.9% of the market with 7.9 billion hours watched, marking a substantial 66% increase from 2023’s 4.8 billion hours. The platform added approximately 800,000 new streamers in 2024, bringing its total unique channels to 1.8 million, a 77% increase from the previous year.

Kick emerges as a major player in its first full year, capturing a 5.7% market share with 2 billion hours watched, representing a 169% increase from 2023’s 725 million hours. The platform shows consistent quarter-over-quarter growth, increasing from 364 million hours in Q1 to 591 million hours in Q4, with unique channels growing 14% to 1.1 million.

Regional and Emerging Platforms

The Korean streaming market has undergone significant transformation following Twitch’s regional shutdown. SOOP Korea (formerly AfreecaTV) captures 3.4% of the global market share with 1.2 billion hours watched, while new entrant Chzzk achieves 2% with 688 million hours. Korean-language channels on Twitch experienced an 89% decline in Q1-Q2, losing almost 100 million hours watched.

Rumble, tracked since February 2024, establishes itself as the sixth most-watched streaming platform, with approximately one-third of its viewership coming from political content. Several smaller platforms show considerable growth, including the Russian VK, with a 1900% increase in viewership.

Content Categories and Performance

Gaming genres maintain stable leadership positions, with First-Person Shooter generating 4.6B hours watched, Action-Adventure at 4.1B, and MOBA at 3.6B hours. VALORANT leads the FPS category with 1.1B hours watched (24% of genre viewership), while GTA V dominates Action-Adventure, increasing from 35% to 48% genre share year-over-year.

The non-gaming sector grew 12% to reach 5.4B hours watched. Social category leads with 3.7B hours watched (+7.6% YoY), followed by IRL (259M hours) and Special Events (227M hours, +26%). Platform-specific content distribution varies significantly, with Twitch at 85% gaming content, YouTube Live at 16%, and Kick at 68%.

User Engagement and Platform Features

Twitch averaged 16 million new subscribers monthly, with peak engagement during September promotions driving 19 million new subscriptions. Platform-specific features show increasing importance for viewer retention, with Twitch Drops campaigns generating substantial viewership for game launches. Overwatch 2 leads this category, followed by World of Warcraft and World of Tanks.

Source: Stream Hatchet

Creator-led events demonstrate significant impact, with 126 events generating 115M total hours watched. Peak viewership records continued to rise, with events reaching up to 3.8 million concurrent viewers.

Market Analysis and Methodology

Stream Hatchet’s research encompasses data from major streaming platforms, analyzing viewership metrics, market share, content categories, and user engagement patterns across global markets.

Get the full report here.

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David Adler is an entrepreneur and freelance blog post writer who enjoys writing about business, entrepreneurship, travel and the influencer marketing space.

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