Stream Hatchet is pleased to announce the release of our 2022 Yearly Video Game Live Streaming Trends Report. In the report, we cover game streaming and esports viewership trends across major live streaming platforms, platform share comparisons, top streamers and games, and other trending topics. Download the full report here:
Live Streaming Viewership Drops 13.5%
Facebook Gaming was the largest contributor to the decline in live streaming hours watched last year, making up 60% of the 4.5B drop. Total live streaming viewership is still up 6% from 2020 and 164% from 2018.
2022: Year of the Creator
Creator-driven events are becoming more and more relevant in streaming culture. Ibai’s boxing event, La Velada de Año II, broke the all-time record for peak viewership in live streaming with 3.3M peak viewers. This number beat the record by a staggering 880K viewers, previously set by TheGrefg during his Fortnite skin release in 2021.
Non-gaming events are driving viewership in live streaming. Half of the top 10 peak events were non-gaming events, including the World Cup, ibai’s boxing event, and a racing event.
Top Live Streaming Charts 2022
VALORANT was the only game last year to increase its overall hours watched, and did so by 22%. This increase, driven both by the game’s popularity and its strong esports scene, brought the game to #3 on the top games list, just behind League of Legends and GTA V, who have both been at the top for the past several years.
Twitch continues to dominate the live streaming landscape; the top 29 live streaming creators last year broadcast on Twitch. xQc continues to dominate the charts with 224M HW. However, the top 10 was shaken up a bit this year. The top 5 this year all returned from 2021, but 5 new faces have appeared, including German-speaking streamer eliasn97 and Japanese-speaking creator fps_shaka. OTK creator Asmongold took the 7th spot with almost 80M hours watched.
For more insights into 2022 live streaming trends, download the full report free:
