The global livestreaming industry maintained stability in the second quarter of 2025, generating 29.61 billion Hours Watched across major platforms, according to the latest Streams Charts report. This represents a marginal 0.6% decrease from the previous quarter.
The quarter saw a shift in market structure as Kick surpassed the “1 billion Hours Watched” threshold, generating over 1.1 billion Hours Watched (up 28.1% from Q1 2025), joining YouTube Live, TikTok Live, and Twitch as the industry’s fourth major platform.
The platform has shown consistent month-over-month growth since March, with no signs of deceleration. Kick now claims 3.74% of the overall market, gradually reclaiming share from rival platforms.
Gaming content now comprises the majority of Kick’s total viewership, with “GTA V” remaining the most popular game, and live interactions with streamers continuing to be a viewer favorite. The platform’s creator rankings show evolution, with maherco rising from third place in Q1 to become the top streamer this quarter.
Japanese streamer korekore_ch represents one of Kick’s success stories, emerging as a fast-growing creator with his “dark news” format that covers real-time social media controversies and mediates online disputes. The report notes that Kick’s greater creative freedom has amplified his appeal after he faced platform restrictions elsewhere due to the sensitive nature of his content.
YouTube Live Maintains Market Leadership
YouTube Live continues to maintain its top market position, accounting for just over 50% of total watch time across the industry, with 14.83 billion Hours Watched in Q2. The platform nearly matched its Q1 performance, with its gaming segment growing approximately 1.2% as a share of total platform viewership.
May proved particularly strong for YouTube Live, delivering 5.15 billion Hours Watched—the platform’s best month on record. During this period, peak concurrent viewers reached 18.94 million, the second-highest count in YouTube Live’s history, alongside new records for both Peak Channels and Average Channels.
“League of Legends and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” drove gaming content growth, with both titles experiencing a 43% increase in viewership following extensive coverage of regional leagues, such as MPL and LCK.
CazéTV maintains its position as the top channel on YouTube Live. Originally launched by Brazilian streamer Casimiro Miguel, it now operates as a sports broadcaster covering football, the Olympics, and other major events. On June 29, CazéTV drew over 5.56 million Peak Viewers during the Flamengo vs. Bayern Munich match in the FIFA Club World Cup—currently the most-watched livestream of 2025.
TikTok Live Stabilizes in Second Position
TikTok Live maintains its second-place ranking with just over 8 billion Hours Watched, showing minimal growth of 0.06% from the previous quarter. The platform’s gaming content, including esports tournament streams, comprises approximately 13% of total viewership.
Unlike its gaming-focused competitors, TikTok Live’s most popular categories remain IRL sections, such as Chats, Fashion, and Outdoors, with “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” continuing as the platform’s leading game.
Twitch Faces Continued Market Pressure
Twitch recorded 4.64 billion Hours Watched in Q2, with gaming content constituting 76.1% of that total. The platform experienced a decline for the third consecutive quarter, with metrics dropping more than 4% compared to Q1. This decline affected both IRL and Gaming categories, contributing to a 0.9% reduction in market share.
The report highlights how Twitch’s decision to allow multistreaming has transformed viewer distribution. Many content creators now broadcast simultaneously across multiple platforms, effectively splitting their audiences.
Brazilian streamer Alexandre “Gaules” Chiqueta exemplifies this trend—once exclusive to Twitch, he began simulcasting on YouTube in mid-2024. During the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, his YouTube streams attracted nearly twice as many viewers as his Twitch broadcasts.
Unlike YouTube Gaming’s esports-dominated rankings, Twitch’s top performers represent diverse content categories, including community caster Marc “Caedrel” Lamont, event organizer Elias “eliasn97” Nerlich, gaming streamer Zack “zackrawrr” Hoyt, and political commentator Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker.
Smaller Platforms Show Varied Performance
SOOP Korea leads smaller platforms with 345.8 million Hours Watched (1.17% of industry total), despite showing a slight decrease from Q1. The platform’s users favor social content, with “League of Legends” and “StarCraft” remaining the preferred games.
CHZZK experienced a 5.9% increase in Hours Watched compared to Q1, benefiting from growth in “Minecraft” and “Overwatch 2” viewership. In late May, the platform hosted a major entertainment event featuring a special “Grand Theft Auto” RP server that attracted nearly all its top streamers.
Rumble’s viewership declined 10.8% as interest surrounding the U.S. presidential inauguration waned. Meanwhile, NimoTV experienced a dramatic 38% decrease, primarily attributed to a reduction in streaming activity from its top creator, Phùng “MixiGaming” Thanh Độ, whose Hours Watched dropped from 52 million to 13 million over three months due to decreased airtime.
SteamTV showed substantial growth with a 93% increase in Hours Watched from Q1, largely driven by the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, which contributed 17.4% of the platform’s total watch time. However, the report notes that SteamTV’s metrics can be misleading due to its unique setup, where streams launch automatically and “viewers” often include users browsing game store pages.
Trovo remained relatively static, with 14.8 million Hours Watched (1.5% less than Q1), continuing to serve as a niche service primarily for Russian-speaking fans of “World of Tanks” and “Lineage II”. Bigo Live recorded 18.6% more Hours Watched than at the start of the year, while SOOP Global saw a 38.1% increase to 4.2 million. For these smaller platforms, the report notes that a single viral stream can dramatically impact performance metrics.
Content Trends and Regional Preferences
The Q2 report highlights how different types of content drive engagement across platforms. Major esports competitions generated significant viewership, with fans in South Korea following LCK matches on YouTube, while regional MPL leagues set new viewership records in Indonesia and the Philippines. The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 attracted substantial audiences across Europe, Brazil, and the U.S.
YouTube’s global reach has made it the platform of choice for international news coverage, from the election of the new Pope and ongoing conflicts to major entertainment events, such as football tournaments, gaming expos, and the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.
Regional preferences continue to shape platform dominance in specific markets. While Twitch maintains its strength in Western gaming and esports streams, YouTube captures a broader range of content categories globally. TikTok excels in IRL content, and Kick continues expanding its footprint across multiple categories and regions.
All images are credited to Streams Charts. The full report is available here.
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
The global livestreaming industry maintained stability in the second quarter of 2025, generating 29.61 billion Hours Watched across major platforms, according to the latest Streams Charts report. This represents a marginal 0.6% decrease from the previous quarter.
The quarter saw a shift in market structure as Kick surpassed the “1 billion Hours Watched” threshold, generating over 1.1 billion Hours Watched (up 28.1% from Q1 2025), joining YouTube Live, TikTok Live, and Twitch as the industry’s fourth major platform.
The platform has shown consistent month-over-month growth since March, with no signs of deceleration. Kick now claims 3.74% of the overall market, gradually reclaiming share from rival platforms.
Gaming content now comprises the majority of Kick’s total viewership, with “GTA V” remaining the most popular game, and live interactions with streamers continuing to be a viewer favorite. The platform’s creator rankings show evolution, with maherco rising from third place in Q1 to become the top streamer this quarter.
Japanese streamer korekore_ch represents one of Kick’s success stories, emerging as a fast-growing creator with his “dark news” format that covers real-time social media controversies and mediates online disputes. The report notes that Kick’s greater creative freedom has amplified his appeal after he faced platform restrictions elsewhere due to the sensitive nature of his content.
YouTube Live Maintains Market Leadership
YouTube Live continues to maintain its top market position, accounting for just over 50% of total watch time across the industry, with 14.83 billion Hours Watched in Q2. The platform nearly matched its Q1 performance, with its gaming segment growing approximately 1.2% as a share of total platform viewership.
May proved particularly strong for YouTube Live, delivering 5.15 billion Hours Watched—the platform’s best month on record. During this period, peak concurrent viewers reached 18.94 million, the second-highest count in YouTube Live’s history, alongside new records for both Peak Channels and Average Channels.
“League of Legends and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” drove gaming content growth, with both titles experiencing a 43% increase in viewership following extensive coverage of regional leagues, such as MPL and LCK.
CazéTV maintains its position as the top channel on YouTube Live. Originally launched by Brazilian streamer Casimiro Miguel, it now operates as a sports broadcaster covering football, the Olympics, and other major events. On June 29, CazéTV drew over 5.56 million Peak Viewers during the Flamengo vs. Bayern Munich match in the FIFA Club World Cup—currently the most-watched livestream of 2025.
TikTok Live Stabilizes in Second Position
TikTok Live maintains its second-place ranking with just over 8 billion Hours Watched, showing minimal growth of 0.06% from the previous quarter. The platform’s gaming content, including esports tournament streams, comprises approximately 13% of total viewership.
Unlike its gaming-focused competitors, TikTok Live’s most popular categories remain IRL sections, such as Chats, Fashion, and Outdoors, with “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” continuing as the platform’s leading game.
Twitch Faces Continued Market Pressure
Twitch recorded 4.64 billion Hours Watched in Q2, with gaming content constituting 76.1% of that total. The platform experienced a decline for the third consecutive quarter, with metrics dropping more than 4% compared to Q1. This decline affected both IRL and Gaming categories, contributing to a 0.9% reduction in market share.
The report highlights how Twitch’s decision to allow multistreaming has transformed viewer distribution. Many content creators now broadcast simultaneously across multiple platforms, effectively splitting their audiences.
Brazilian streamer Alexandre “Gaules” Chiqueta exemplifies this trend—once exclusive to Twitch, he began simulcasting on YouTube in mid-2024. During the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, his YouTube streams attracted nearly twice as many viewers as his Twitch broadcasts.
Unlike YouTube Gaming’s esports-dominated rankings, Twitch’s top performers represent diverse content categories, including community caster Marc “Caedrel” Lamont, event organizer Elias “eliasn97” Nerlich, gaming streamer Zack “zackrawrr” Hoyt, and political commentator Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker.
Smaller Platforms Show Varied Performance
SOOP Korea leads smaller platforms with 345.8 million Hours Watched (1.17% of industry total), despite showing a slight decrease from Q1. The platform’s users favor social content, with “League of Legends” and “StarCraft” remaining the preferred games.
CHZZK experienced a 5.9% increase in Hours Watched compared to Q1, benefiting from growth in “Minecraft” and “Overwatch 2” viewership. In late May, the platform hosted a major entertainment event featuring a special “Grand Theft Auto” RP server that attracted nearly all its top streamers.
Rumble’s viewership declined 10.8% as interest surrounding the U.S. presidential inauguration waned. Meanwhile, NimoTV experienced a dramatic 38% decrease, primarily attributed to a reduction in streaming activity from its top creator, Phùng “MixiGaming” Thanh Độ, whose Hours Watched dropped from 52 million to 13 million over three months due to decreased airtime.
SteamTV showed substantial growth with a 93% increase in Hours Watched from Q1, largely driven by the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, which contributed 17.4% of the platform’s total watch time. However, the report notes that SteamTV’s metrics can be misleading due to its unique setup, where streams launch automatically and “viewers” often include users browsing game store pages.
Trovo remained relatively static, with 14.8 million Hours Watched (1.5% less than Q1), continuing to serve as a niche service primarily for Russian-speaking fans of “World of Tanks” and “Lineage II”. Bigo Live recorded 18.6% more Hours Watched than at the start of the year, while SOOP Global saw a 38.1% increase to 4.2 million. For these smaller platforms, the report notes that a single viral stream can dramatically impact performance metrics.
Content Trends and Regional Preferences
The Q2 report highlights how different types of content drive engagement across platforms. Major esports competitions generated significant viewership, with fans in South Korea following LCK matches on YouTube, while regional MPL leagues set new viewership records in Indonesia and the Philippines. The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 attracted substantial audiences across Europe, Brazil, and the U.S.
YouTube’s global reach has made it the platform of choice for international news coverage, from the election of the new Pope and ongoing conflicts to major entertainment events, such as football tournaments, gaming expos, and the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.
Regional preferences continue to shape platform dominance in specific markets. While Twitch maintains its strength in Western gaming and esports streams, YouTube captures a broader range of content categories globally. TikTok excels in IRL content, and Kick continues expanding its footprint across multiple categories and regions.
All images are credited to Streams Charts.
The full report is available here.
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