Chess streams hit record-breaking 21 million hours watched on Twitch following ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ success

Chess streams have never been among the most popular categories on Twitch. However, they reached a new milestone last month — all thanks to the huge success of “The Queen’s Gambit.”

StreamElements shared the information in their recent report, based on data from Rainmaker.gg.

According to the analysts, people watched 21 million hours of chess streams on Twitch in February. It’s a record this category has never seen before. It is up from 1 million hours watched a year ago.

The rise of the chess category began in June 2020, when popular site Chess.com partnered with Twitch. They launched the PogChamps series with popular chess streamers and experts. Thanks to the partnership, the category reached 13 million hours watched soon. However, it dropped twice over the next month and shrunk to 3 million by last October.

After “The Queen’s Gambit” became a hit, the category drew attention again. Although it’s been four months since the series’ release, chess had a huge boost last month. And it now continues to rise.

Now “Chess” is the 17th most popular category on Twitch. The first three places are taken by Just Chatting (235 million hours watched), League of Legends (144 million), and GTA 5 (135 million).