It is not a secret that a bunch of gamers make a living by livestreaming or uploading their game walkthrough on YouTube. Therefore, a drop in viewership means a revenue drop for them—and that will be a source of concern for them.
A new Q3 2024 report from Streams Charts shows a global shift in the livestreaming landscape. The report shows that “YouTube Live lost a significant portion of viewership while Twitch and Kick gained in the gaming division ahead of YouTube.
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Notwithstanding the vast number of esports events available for YouTube audiences, YouTube Gaming lost more than a quarter of its overall viewership (27%). The low gaming viewership persisted throughout the Q3 months compared to Q2 of 2024 which was YouTube’s best months for the year.
YouTube Live recorded a cumulative 13.17 billion watched hours in Q3 which is 13.6% lower than the previous quarter. This is a wake-up call for game streamers to bring their offering to more platforms.
The most promising small streaming platforms besides YouTube
Any YouTube game streamer who wants to diversify their offering to more platforms now has the right statistics to guide their decision. The Q3 Streams Charts surveyed smaller streaming platforms and Kick, AfreecaTV, NimoTV, Naver’s CHZZK, and Rumble showed significant growths.
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Kick recorded over 600 million watched hours to trump its closest rival in the small streaming platform space AfreecaTV which recorded 408.2 million watched hours. However, its viewership has slowed after massive leaps recorded earlier this year—although it has maintained steady growth at 15.6% in Q3.
YouTube still has the lion’s share (66.7%) of watched hours compared to all the other streaming platforms followed by Twitch (35%) and Kick (3%). Gaming was the third most watched category on YouTube behind News & Politics and Entertainment.
IShowSpeed became the first solo English-language streamer to hit 1 million live views
While the stats may not be cheery for the YouTube gaming division, it gets more interesting when you zoom in on the quarter. The viewership in the division was lowest in August with 529.55 million watched hours. However, it grew sharply to 683.36 million watched hours in September. That growth would likely continue in Q4.
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The top three most-watched channels in the quarter were MPL Indonesia, IShowSpeed, and LCK while the most-watched games were Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, League of Legends, and Garena Free Fire. However, the most standout event was the feat achieved by IShowSpeed.
“During Q3, IShowSpeed became the first ever solo English-language streamer to earn more than 1,000,000 concurrent viewers live,” noted Streams Charts. “The American spent Q3 hosting IRL streams across the globe, reaching 1.043 million peak viewers during his broadcast from Indonesia.”
While content creation and streaming has become a lucrative career path for millions of people across the globe, it has also become more competitive. Those planning to get into the pack must find a way to stand out or will be drowned amidst the million other video hours published daily.
