TL;DR: YouTube continuing to climb as the platform saw an increase of 5.9% in hours watched in July.
In the wake of Mixer shutting down, esports leagues signing exclusivity deals, and streamers partnering with or testing new live streaming sites, the platform wars have may have come alive once again. The recent news of Shroud, Dr Disrespect, and Ninja streaming on YouTube and Twitch have created massive interest in the streamers’ first sessions back with peak concurrency reaching over 500k viewers in some cases. While Twitch seems like the obvious choice for some, YouTube has slowly been chipping away at the margin between the two platform giants. Not only has YouTube been snatching talent, but the site’s live streaming has been able to steadily increase viewership. However, Twitch is still far and away the leader in terms of total hours watched. Will YouTube be able to catch up and leverage a one-stop-shop value proposition for both live streaming and VOD content?
- Although Twitch still held 66% of the total hours watched market share in July, the platform decreased 2.9% since June but still hit 1.6B hours watched.
- YouTube reached over 517M hours watched in July resulting in an increase of 5.9% from the previous month. The site continues to prove it’s here to stay as it steals more viewership from Twitch.
- Facebook Gaming generated 280M hours watched with a growth of 1.2% since June. The platform is likely realizing an influx of viewership following the Mixer shutdown and redirecting viewers to Facebook Gaming’s website.
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