In an increased digitally-focused world, it makes sense that the streaming industry would take off as much as it has. Streaming platforms Twitch and Facebook Gaming have experienced a tremendously successful year and a fantastic start to 2021 according to a new report from Stream Labs.

Both Twitch and Facebook Gaming have reported a record number of viewers in the first quarter of 2021, a boost that was no doubt stimulated by the global pandemic that introduced more and more people to the world of streaming. The most interesting nugget of information is that Facebook Gaming is growing ever closer to YouTube Gaming, which still holds the spot as the second most popular streaming platform. For how long? Well, that remains to be seen.

Facebook Gaming hit a major milestone this last quarter, surpassing 1 billion views; it also closed the gap between it and YouTube Gaming, lowering it to 300,000 views. Which in the world of streaming isn’t that bad.

YouTube begins to Twitch

Twitch continues on as the dominant force in the streaming industry, occupying 72% of all the hours viewed and breaking its number of hours viewed. People watched 6.3 billion hours of content on Twitch and a large chunk of that wasn’t even gaming related. Twitch’s “Just Chatting” category roped in a staggering 734 million hours while the most viewed game turned out to be Grand Theft Auto V, which people watched for around 536.2 million hours.

YouTube is the only one out of the big three streaming platforms that saw a drop in viewership as it saw a drop of 28.6% in viewership as the hours decreased from 1.92 billion hours to 1.37 billion. While YouTube Gaming has still managed to grow its annual viewership, kicking off 2021 with a decrease in numbers is probably not the best way to start the new year.

Source: Gizmodo