Despite the seemingly eternal popularity of certain genres on live streaming, the tides are slowly changing. Multiplayer live service games with esports potential appear to be the kings of online viewership, but looking at the biggest titles of 2024 reveals that single player experiences might be edging their way into the hearts of viewers.
To confirm this, we’ve undertaken a survey of the most popular game genres on live streaming platforms in recent months, whilst looking back to see how these genres compare to just a few years ago. This is a follow-up to our 2022 live streaming game genre analysis, further examining where fans have been watching these genres online.
FPS Games Alone Beat Out Non Gaming Content in Q2 2024
Looking purely at Q2 2024, the typical suspects seem to continue to bring in mass viewership. FPS games, for example, brought in the highest viewership of any genre with 1.2B hours watched throughout Q2 2024. This makes it the only gaming genre to single-handedly outperform non gaming content, at 965M hours watched (non-gaming content has been on the rise since last year). Other multiplayer live service compatible genres like MOBAs and Battle Royales also rank highly, sitting at 812M and 582M hours watched, respectively.
However, there are disturbances to the status quo. Looking at growth from Q2 2023 to Q2 2024, Action games have risen in popularity by 30% to 655M hours watched. Popular Action games from the last quarter include Elden Ring (buoyed by the release of its Shadow of the Erdtree DLC) and Rust which ran an incredibly successful Twitch Drops campaign. Action-Adventure games dropped by 24% despite including mega-popular titles like GTA V. This may have more to do with how incredible Q2 2023 was for Action-Adventure fans, with both Diablo IV and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom releasing last year.
Notably, this analysis excludes the popularity of many subgenres within these titles. “Hidden” Steam genres with mass popularity are helpfully being uncovered with the use of AI by Ichiro Lambe, for those interested in deeper trends.
Action Games and RPGs Are Rising To Prominence on Live Streaming Platforms
Taking a broader view of the topic dating back to COVID-era viewing reveals that this rise in Action game popularity is consistent. In 2020, just 4% of all genre viewership was from Action games, but in 2024 it has risen to 8%. Meanwhile, the share of viewership belonging to FPS games has actually dropped from 16% to 13% over the same time period. While 2020 data is massively affected by COVID-era preferences (which supported esports-viable gaming), this trend suggests that viewers are beginning to seek out single player game coverage.
Among action games, certain subgenres are boosting popularity. AAA action game titles from Chinese and Korean game developers like Naraka: Bladepoint and Stellar Blade experienced incredible surges in attention upon their release, while Gacha games like Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, and the recently-released Zenless Zone Zero deliver sustained viewership thanks to regularly-released new characters and weapons. Action titles have great versatility in providing both limited and live-service experiences.
Interestingly, RPG viewership is also on the rise, having increased from just 3% in 2020 to 7% in 2024. Given the slew of critically-acclaimed RPGs released in the past few months, this jump in popularity makes sense. As mentioned before, Elden Ring would have boosted viewership, as would Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dragon’s Dogma 2 which were both smash successes upon release. This inclination towards story-driven experiences perhaps represents viewers’ desire to passively experience a story alongside their favorite streamers.
One genre not represented here is Simulator games, which is surprising given their immense popularity on Steam and the recent success of games like Supermarket Simulator. There is also a large amount of pre-release hype for Simulator games on Steam, as seen in Game Discover Co.’s analysis of the topic.
Twitch Cedes Some Gaming Genre Viewership to YouTube Gaming
Twitch remains the undisputed champion of live-streaming content by sheer viewership, dominating every genre. However, certain genres are more diverse regarding their platform distribution than others. For example, YouTube has claimed significant viewership in the Shooter, MOBA, and Battle Royale genres with a 39%, 31%, and 38% share of viewership, respectively. Advertisers looking to target games within these genres would do well to look to promote themselves on YouTube as much as Twitch.
The other, smaller platforms also have their own growth areas. As mentioned earlier, Steam users and viewers have a particular affinity for Simulator games, with a significant 6.4% of all viewership within the genre. AfreecaTV’s strongest performing genre is MOBAs with 4.0% of all viewership – though this will now have transferred to SOOP.
Of course these macro trends in genres may ignore some finer points. For example, although games that are well-suited to esports appear to be losing popularity, esports itself is booming right now with the success of the Esports World Cup and the recently-announced Olympics Esports Games. Stream Hatchet will continue to watch as genre popularity fluctuates throughout the rest of 2024.
To access the full Q2 2024 report for free, including analyses of top creators and the current state of esports, click here:
