Globally renowned for broadcasting prominent eSports competitions, Amazon’s livestreaming platform Twitch has grown in leaps and bounds in 2020. According to the research data analyzed and published by Safe Betting Sites, it smashed multiple records in concurrent viewers, hours watched and hours streamed during the year.
In terms of maximum concurrent viewers, a new record of 6,059,527 was set in June 2020. The previous record had been set in April 2020, with 4,469,389 concurrent viewers. Prior to this, the all-time peak of 3,987,461 had been set in August 2018.
It also set a new peak in total hours watched, at 5,066,520,807 in the three-month period of Q2 2020. The previous record was set in Q1 2020 at 3,114,069,793 hours. Prior to that, the highest quarter on record was in Q3 2019 at 2.794 billion hours.
Comparing Q2 and Q1 2020, there was a 62.7% increase in total hours watched. The year-on-year (YoY) increase was a massive 83.1%.
Twitch broke yet another record in total hours streamed, which amounted to 192,702,934 in Q2. It was a 58.7% increase from 121,405,536 hours in Q1 2020 and a YoY increase of 80.1%. Prior to that, the previous peak was 119.69 million hours streamed in Q1 2019.
Unique channels also rose to a new high during the period, increasing by 63.9% from 6,100,779 in Q1 to 9,996,300 in Q2. The previous peak set in Q1 2019 was 6,929,356. Average concurrent viewership also hit a new peak of 2,355,282 in Q2. It was a 63.4% increase from 1,441,698 in Q1, set from a previous peak of 1,272,338 in Q1 2019.
Twitch Holds 67.6% Market Share in Total Hours Watched
Twitch was the industry leader in more ways than one in the second quarter of 2020. For instance, in terms of total hours watched, the new all-time high gave it a 67.6% share (5.07 billion hours) of the market total.
To put these figures in perspective, YouTube Gaming was second with a total of 1.50 billion hours, a 20.0% share. Facebook, on the other hand, had an 11.0% share with 822.5 million hours watched. Mixer came in fourth with 106.2 million hours watched, a 1.4% share.
During the same period, the total hours streamed on Twitch accounted for 76.5% (192.7 million hours) of the total. In contrast, YouTube Gaming had 6.7% (16.9 million hours), Facebook 2.4% (6 million hours) and Mixer 14.4% (36.3 million hours).
Unique channels on Twitch numbered 9,996,300 during the quarter, accounting for 61.3% of the total. YouTube Gaming Live had 1,056,536 (6.5%), Facebook 203,554 (1.2%) and Mixer 5,048,101 (31.0%).
Taking into consideration YTD performance, Twitch has not slowed down in Q3. As of September 29, 2020, Twitch Tracker shows that viewers have watched a total of 13.06 billion hours in 2020. It marks a 59.1% increase compared to the 5.5 billion hours watched in 2019.
According to Statista, Twitch had about 7.46 million active streamers in July 2020. Total streamers in August 2020 increased to 7.71 million. As of September 29, 2020, there are 6.2 million monthly streamers, 71% higher than the 2019 figure.
There has also been an increase of 59% in concurrent viewers as of the same date, at 2,001,000. Average concurrent channels have increased by 67% to 82,800 from 49,500 in 2019 and partners have increased by 28% to 45,365 from 35,580 in 2019.
It is noteworthy that even though Twitch is the industry leader, it is by no means alone in terms of impressive performance. For instance, YouTube Gaming in Q2 2020 reported a 39.1% increase in hours watched compared to Q1 2020. Facebook Gaming’s growth in the same vector was even more impressive, at 48.5%. On the other hand, Mixer had a 30.6% increase over the same period.
Tencent is Creating a $10B Livestreaming Service, Could Overtake Twitch
Twitch is clearly the world leader in live streaming as of September 2020. However, Tencent is making huge moves that could see the tables turn. Tencent is set to create a video game streaming service targeting China.
It proposed a merger deal between Chinese rivals Huya and DouYu to create one mega platform whose market worth would surpass $10 billion. Tencent already owns over a third of the two companies. Moreover, it has offered $810 million to purchase 30 million Huya shares from Joyy, a part owner.
With complete control over the new mega entity, the WeChat operator would be the dominant player in China’s $3.4 billion live-stream gaming space. Notably, Huya’s monthly active users in 2019 topped 141 million, while DouYu has 162.9 million. With an audience of over 300 million monthly users, it could be a bigger entity than Twitch.
