In the live streaming space it’s common knowledge just how dominant the Just Chatting category is on Twitch. However, when looking at the whole picture we find that the “variety” style of content that you find in Just Chatting, Special Events, Music, and other content on Twitch doesn’t take the top spot. That title goes to the first-person shooter genre, which has yet to be dethroned as the #1 most watched genre in live streaming. In fact first person shooters have generated almost 1.3 billion more hours watched more than all other non-gaming content on Twitch.
Gaming vs Non-Gaming Genre
While Non-Gaming content might not currently be the #1 genre, it is the least volatile genre on our graphic with little to no spikes month to month with a range of 360K at its peak to 304K at its floor so far this year. It often hovers around the #2 or #3 spot for top genre in live streaming, which certainly is impressive. The MOBA genre, which hovered around 3rd or 4th except during the League of Legends Worlds when it hit #2, saw a peak of 375K hours watched but also had a floor of 169K hours watched. The first-person shooter had a bit less of a volatile year, ranging from a peak of 483K and a floor of 405K hours watched.
These spikes are often driven by big moments that are happening in esports or their seasonal scheduling, events hosted by large influencers, new game releases into the genre, or major updates to a specific game.
For instance, the Action-Adventure genre was able to see major growth during July and August thanks to the Tortillaland 2 event hosted by the Spanish speaking Minecraft community.
First-person shooters found their biggest spike during the year after the long awaited release of Overwatch 2 which became the second most streamed game that month generating 154M hours watched alone. During the same month MOBAs found a major spike thanks to the League of Legends Worlds tournament which became the most watched streaming event this year with 142M hours watched.
Currently gaming still dominates live streaming watch time. However, as the space continues to add different varieties of non-gaming content into the market, we may find a time in the future where this chart is completely different.
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