Stream Hatchet’s “Q1 2025 Live-Streaming Trends Report” reveals that overall viewership has reached its highest first-quarter level since 2021 amid changes in platform dominance and content preferences.

Live-streaming viewership increased 8.9% year-over-year in Q1 2025, reaching 8.9 billion hours watched across all platforms. This growth occurred despite Twitch seeing a 6.9% drop in its own viewership compared to Q1 2024.

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Twitch remains the market leader with a 58.9% share of all hours watched, but this represents a stabilization after a more significant 10% quarter-over-quarter decline in Q2 2024. Alternative platforms are driving the overall sector’s growth, with YouTube Gaming experiencing a 25% year-over-year increase and Kick showing a substantial 112% rise.

The Korean streaming market has undergone significant changes following Twitch’s departure from the region last year. Local platforms SOOP Korea (formerly AfreecaTV) and Chzzk have steadily grown to occupy a combined 5.9% market share, while both platforms reported approximately 94% year-over-year increases in non-gaming content.

Non-Gaming Content Continues to Lead

Non-gaming has solidified its position as the most-watched content category, growing 25.6% year-over-year to reach 1.54 billion hours watched in Q1 2025. This growth is attributed mainly to Kick, which saw a 94.9% increase in non-gaming viewership.

Among gaming categories, only Shooter and Action games saw increases in viewership, with 13.4% and 15.9% growth, respectively. This was bolstered by the success of “Marvel Rivals,” which generated 179 million hours watched. 

The Battle Royale genre continued its decline, dropping 29.6% in viewership since the previous quarter—a contrast to Q1 2021 when it was the top-ranked genre with 1.6 billion hours watched.

Esports Viewership Quality Over Quantity

Esports viewership declined 2.3% year-over-year, primarily due to fewer tournaments being held. The report notes that in Q1 2023, 729 tournaments were recorded; however, this number fell by 53% the following year and remained low in 2025.

Despite the reduction in total events, viewership per tournament in Q1 2025 remained strong at 1.8 million hours per event—higher than in 2023 when overall viewership peaked. Major competitions, such as the LCK Cup 2025 and the 2025 Intel Extreme Masters, contributed significantly, together accounting for 80 million hours of viewership.

New Game Releases Show Strong Performance

“Monster Hunter Wilds” emerged as the standout new release of the quarter, amassing 74 million hours watched within its first 30 days. The game generated over 10 million hours watched within the first 24 hours of release alone—the highest day-one viewership for any game since the start of 2023.

“Kingdom Come: Deliverance II” also performed well with 40.8 million hours watched in its first month, marking the strongest debut for an Action-Adventure game since “Black Myth: Wukong” launched in Q3 2024.

“Schedule I” demonstrated the power of top creator endorsements, with 60% of its viewership coming from streams by top 100 creators in the first three weeks after release. This contrasts with “Monster Hunter Wilds,” which maintained a more consistent distribution of viewership across different streamers.

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Creator Rankings See Major Shifts

Following Kai Cenat‘s record-breaking Mafiathon 2 in November 2024, his viewership dropped 76% quarter-over-quarter, paving the way for other creators to rise in the rankings. “League of Legends” personality Caedrel claimed the top spot with a 20% increase in hours watched, reaching 30.4 million hours in Q1.

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TimTheTatman returned to the top 10 with a 179% increase in viewership following his return to Twitch after completing a three-year exclusivity deal with YouTube Gaming.

In the female creator category, Valkyrae jumped to first place with a 161% viewership increase, driven by her announcement of returning to Twitch after five years of YouTube Gaming exclusivity and her successful “Sis-a-thon” marathon stream.

The VTuber scene saw Pekora claim the top position with 14.2 million hours watched and consistently high average concurrent viewership, which never dropped below 20,000 throughout February 2025.

Brand Engagement Trends

While most brands saw declining mentions in Twitch chat—mirroring the platform’s overall viewership drop—Disney’s Marvel bucked the trend with a 248% increase in unique chatters year-over-year. This surge propelled Marvel from 24th place in Q1 2024 to 3rd place in Q1 2025, driven by the successful release of “Marvel Rivals.”

Minecraft maintained its position as the most mentioned brand despite a 10% decrease in unique chatters, while Nintendo narrowly fell out of the top 10 despite generating buzz with its Direct stream in late March.

Get the full report here.