Twitch views in the 4th quarter of 2019 sank due to the departure of top streamers
In the 4th quarter of 2019, Twitch‘s views began to fall. The indicators of Twitch, YouTube Live and Mixer were compared in a joint report by StreamLabs and Newzoo.
Analysts presented data on the largest streaming sites for the final quarter of 2019 and for the whole year.
Twitch
Twitch’s audience has been forecast to fall since August. That month, the popular Ninja streamer, aka Tyler Blevins, moved to the Mixer site. It was followed by another streamer — Shroud. Over the fall, Twitch also left a number of other top influencers, choosing either YouTube Live or Facebook Gaming.
The effect of these transitions appeared at the end of the year. The number of hours viewed on Twitch fell by 9.8% in quarterly terms. In total, users of the site watched 2.2 billion hours for three months, and this is the worst result since the 3rd quarter of 2018.
Hours of views on Twitch
The broadcast hours have also decreased.
In the 4th quarter, users logged 82.7 million hours (compared to 87.3 million hours in the previous quarter). However, the overall figure for all four quarters of 2019 was 16.1% higher than for the whole of 2018.
Hours of broadcasts on Twitch
The average number of simultaneous viewers for the quarter at Twitch also decreased by 9.4%.
The indicator was lower only in the 3rd quarter of 2018. Although in annual terms, the annual online still grew — by 12.3%.
Average number of simultaneous viewers on Twitch
With falling indicators, Twitch is still the largest streaming service with a market share of 75%.
Other sites
YouTube Live
The only service that has shown an increase in viewed and streamed hours, as well as online, is YouTube Live. Moreover, the first indicator for the year immediately increased by 46%, reaching 909.1 million hours.
Hours of views on YouTube Live
Two factors played an important role in the growth: the broadcast of top esports tournaments and the transition to the CouRage streamer site.
After the arrival of the latter, the service’s peak online jumped sharply — by 33.8% in just a quarter. At the end of the year, YouTube Live grabbed 22.1% of the market.
Average number of simultaneous viewers on YouTube LiveMixer
As for Mixer, the arrival of Ninja did not help him. The viewed hours at the site decreased by 8.5% in quarterly terms to 82.5 million. Although the same indicator has more than doubled in a year.
Hours of views on Mixer
Mixer ended 2019 with 2.7% of the market and a drop in broadcast hours to 28.4 million for the quarter.
However, there has been more content on the site over the year. The total number of broadcast hours reached 80.3 million against 35.2 million in 2018. The same situation is with simultaneous views: a drop in quarterly terms (by 8%) and a strong annual growth (by 55.1%).
Hours of broadcasts on MixerFacebook Gaming
Analysts did not include data on Facebook Gaming in their report. However, as TechCrunch notes, the number of broadcast hours has increased for the service over the year, and by 275% at once. Such dynamics could be facilitated by the arrival of streamers Disguised Toast, Zero and Corinna Kopf, as well as the launch of Facebook Gaming in Thailand and Latin America.
Let’s add that the most popular game on Twitch in 2019 was League of Legends, and on YouTube Live and Mixer — Fortnite.
Top games of 2019 on TwitchAlso on the topic:
