Stream Hatchet’s 2025 annual report shows over 36 billion hours watched across platforms, with platform fragmentation accelerating
Live streaming viewership reached 36.4 billion hours watched in 2025, a 6% year-over-year increase that brought the industry close to its 2021 pandemic-era peak of 37.1 billion hours, according to Stream Hatchet‘s “2025 Live Streaming Trends Report.” The growth rate, while positive, represented a deceleration from the 15% increase recorded in 2024.
Platform Power Struggle
Twitch remained the most-watched live streaming platform with 19.2 billion hours watched, but its market share fell 8.3 percentage points over the course of the year. The platform recorded three consecutive quarterly declines in viewership, and Q4’s 4.4 billion hours were the lowest since Q1 2020. Viewership from Twitch’s top creators fell 14.5% year-over-year, with streamers Baiano and Gaules transitioning to YouTube Gaming and Kick.
The report attributes part of the decline to a mid-year platform policy change. “In July, Twitch announced that it would be implementing a series of measures to combat viewbotting,” the report states, noting this contributed to a drop in unique channels. At 8.4 million unique channels in Q4, Twitch recorded its lowest figure since Q1 2020.
YouTube Gaming posted its highest annual viewership on record at 8.8 billion hours, a 12% year-over-year gain, while unique channels on the platform grew 54% to 2.8 million. Sponsored content on YouTube Gaming generated 10.8 million hours watched (a 71% year-over-year increase), with streamer TheBurntPeanut leading in sponsored viewership, primarily promoting “ARC Raiders” and “PUBG Battlegrounds.”
Kick recorded the fastest growth among major platforms, with hours watched rising 131% to 4.5 billion, securing approximately one-eighth of the total live streaming market. The platform’s unique channel count grew 68% to 1.8 million. Among creators broadcasting for more than 1,000 hours on Kick in 2025, 27% attracted an average of more than 100 viewers per airtime minute, nearly double the 14% figure recorded in 2024.
Korean platform Chzzk grew viewership 44% to 990 million hours, approaching the 1 billion annual mark, while SOOP Korea held steady at 1.2 billion hours.
Gaming Genres and Top Titles
First-person shooters led all gaming genres with 4.6 billion hours watched, up 3.8% year-over-year. “Counter-Strike” and “VALORANT” together generated 847 million hours of tournament viewership within the category.
“League of Legends” reclaimed the title of most-watched game across all platforms with 1.95 billion hours watched, displacing “Grand Theft Auto V,” which fell to second at 1.9 billion hours. “Counter-Strike” moved to third with 1.28 billion hours, surpassing “VALORANT” following a 29% viewership increase – the first time “Counter-Strike” has exceeded 1 billion annual hours watched.
Roblox was the only new entry in the overall top 10 games, recording 515 million hours watched, a 212% year-over-year increase. Within Roblox, the “Grow A Garden” experience generated more than 100 million hours watched on YouTube Gaming, Twitch, and Kick combined, before viewership shifted toward the “Steal A Brainrot” experience in Q4.
Among new game releases, “ARC Raiders” led all titles with 129 million hours watched in its first 30 days. “Escape From Tarkov” followed at 104 million hours following its full release, and “Monster Hunter Wilds” reached 74 million hours in its first month, with 58% of that total occurring in the first seven days. Indie titles “Schedule I” and “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” each exceeded 30 million first-month hours.
Non-Gaming Content and Brand Visibility
Non-gaming content continued to expand its footprint on Twitch, with Just Chatting growing 25% and IRL streams rising 19%. The non-gaming share of Twitch viewership reached 22%, up from 20% in 2024. Across the top three platforms, non-gaming viewership grew 13% compared to 2024.
News and politics content on YouTube recorded a 236% increase in live streaming hours. The sports category grew on YouTube, driven by soccer streams, while declining 11% on Twitch and Kick combined.
On Twitch, Marvel ranked as the top media brand by unique chatters with 1.7 million (a gain of two positions from the prior year), driven by mentions tied to the release of “Marvel Rivals.” Nutella displaced Oreo as the leading food brand, while Coca-Cola retained its position as the top beverage brand with 1.2 million unique chatters. Crocs entered the apparel top three following 26,000 mentions in a single day, tied to Kai Cenat’s “Mafiathon 3” stream.
ESports and Creator Events
Total esports hours watched grew 6% to 2.8 billion. The League of Legends Worlds 2025 event reached 6.6 million peak concurrent viewers, the highest of any esports event in the year. Co-streaming accounted for 50% of all esports viewership, totaling 1.4 billion hours, with Caedrel recording 83 million hours as the top co-streamer.
The Esports World Cup, held in July and August, drew 168 million total hours watched, a 73% increase from its inaugural 2024 edition. YouTube’s share of EWC viewership rose to 43%, up from 31% the prior year, while Twitch’s share fell from 49% to 30%.
Among creator-led live events, Spanish streamer Ibai’s La Velada del Año V drew 9.2 million peak concurrent viewers on Twitch, the highest of any creator-led event in 2025.
Kai Cenat was the most-watched individual streamer of the year with 131.9 million total hours, during which he became the first Twitch creator to reach 1 million active subscribers.
Image source: Stream Hatchet The full report is available here
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Stream Hatchet’s 2025 annual report shows over 36 billion hours watched across platforms, with platform fragmentation accelerating
Live streaming viewership reached 36.4 billion hours watched in 2025, a 6% year-over-year increase that brought the industry close to its 2021 pandemic-era peak of 37.1 billion hours, according to Stream Hatchet‘s “2025 Live Streaming Trends Report.” The growth rate, while positive, represented a deceleration from the 15% increase recorded in 2024.
Platform Power Struggle
Twitch remained the most-watched live streaming platform with 19.2 billion hours watched, but its market share fell 8.3 percentage points over the course of the year. The platform recorded three consecutive quarterly declines in viewership, and Q4’s 4.4 billion hours were the lowest since Q1 2020. Viewership from Twitch’s top creators fell 14.5% year-over-year, with streamers Baiano and Gaules transitioning to YouTube Gaming and Kick.
The report attributes part of the decline to a mid-year platform policy change. “In July, Twitch announced that it would be implementing a series of measures to combat viewbotting,” the report states, noting this contributed to a drop in unique channels. At 8.4 million unique channels in Q4, Twitch recorded its lowest figure since Q1 2020.
YouTube Gaming posted its highest annual viewership on record at 8.8 billion hours, a 12% year-over-year gain, while unique channels on the platform grew 54% to 2.8 million. Sponsored content on YouTube Gaming generated 10.8 million hours watched (a 71% year-over-year increase), with streamer TheBurntPeanut leading in sponsored viewership, primarily promoting “ARC Raiders” and “PUBG Battlegrounds.”
Kick recorded the fastest growth among major platforms, with hours watched rising 131% to 4.5 billion, securing approximately one-eighth of the total live streaming market. The platform’s unique channel count grew 68% to 1.8 million. Among creators broadcasting for more than 1,000 hours on Kick in 2025, 27% attracted an average of more than 100 viewers per airtime minute, nearly double the 14% figure recorded in 2024.
Korean platform Chzzk grew viewership 44% to 990 million hours, approaching the 1 billion annual mark, while SOOP Korea held steady at 1.2 billion hours.
Gaming Genres and Top Titles
First-person shooters led all gaming genres with 4.6 billion hours watched, up 3.8% year-over-year. “Counter-Strike” and “VALORANT” together generated 847 million hours of tournament viewership within the category.
“League of Legends” reclaimed the title of most-watched game across all platforms with 1.95 billion hours watched, displacing “Grand Theft Auto V,” which fell to second at 1.9 billion hours. “Counter-Strike” moved to third with 1.28 billion hours, surpassing “VALORANT” following a 29% viewership increase – the first time “Counter-Strike” has exceeded 1 billion annual hours watched.
Roblox was the only new entry in the overall top 10 games, recording 515 million hours watched, a 212% year-over-year increase. Within Roblox, the “Grow A Garden” experience generated more than 100 million hours watched on YouTube Gaming, Twitch, and Kick combined, before viewership shifted toward the “Steal A Brainrot” experience in Q4.
Among new game releases, “ARC Raiders” led all titles with 129 million hours watched in its first 30 days. “Escape From Tarkov” followed at 104 million hours following its full release, and “Monster Hunter Wilds” reached 74 million hours in its first month, with 58% of that total occurring in the first seven days. Indie titles “Schedule I” and “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” each exceeded 30 million first-month hours.
Non-Gaming Content and Brand Visibility
Non-gaming content continued to expand its footprint on Twitch, with Just Chatting growing 25% and IRL streams rising 19%. The non-gaming share of Twitch viewership reached 22%, up from 20% in 2024. Across the top three platforms, non-gaming viewership grew 13% compared to 2024.
News and politics content on YouTube recorded a 236% increase in live streaming hours. The sports category grew on YouTube, driven by soccer streams, while declining 11% on Twitch and Kick combined.
On Twitch, Marvel ranked as the top media brand by unique chatters with 1.7 million (a gain of two positions from the prior year), driven by mentions tied to the release of “Marvel Rivals.” Nutella displaced Oreo as the leading food brand, while Coca-Cola retained its position as the top beverage brand with 1.2 million unique chatters. Crocs entered the apparel top three following 26,000 mentions in a single day, tied to Kai Cenat’s “Mafiathon 3” stream.
ESports and Creator Events
Total esports hours watched grew 6% to 2.8 billion. The League of Legends Worlds 2025 event reached 6.6 million peak concurrent viewers, the highest of any esports event in the year. Co-streaming accounted for 50% of all esports viewership, totaling 1.4 billion hours, with Caedrel recording 83 million hours as the top co-streamer.
The Esports World Cup, held in July and August, drew 168 million total hours watched, a 73% increase from its inaugural 2024 edition. YouTube’s share of EWC viewership rose to 43%, up from 31% the prior year, while Twitch’s share fell from 49% to 30%.
Among creator-led live events, Spanish streamer Ibai’s La Velada del Año V drew 9.2 million peak concurrent viewers on Twitch, the highest of any creator-led event in 2025.
Kai Cenat was the most-watched individual streamer of the year with 131.9 million total hours, during which he became the first Twitch creator to reach 1 million active subscribers.
Image source: Stream Hatchet
The full report is available here