In the first quarter of 2023, Twitch and YouTube garnered the most Hours Watched among all other live streaming platforms. However, none of the leaders demonstrated significant dynamics in this indicator, as the figures remained at the same level as in the fourth quarter of 2022. When considering YouTube Gaming segment separately from non-gaming YouTube broadcasts, its total Hours Watched grew by almost 13% for the same period.
Major Takeaways:
-
Twitch and YouTube Live watch time remained at the same level as in the last quarter of 2022.
-
YouTube Gaming grew by 13%, with gaming streams now accounting for 17% of the total Hours Watched of YouTube Live.
-
Valorant and Minecraft significantly increased their audience reach on Twitch.
-
The content of Kai Cenat and Kings League was in-demand the most on Twitch in Q1 2023.
-
Nonolive showed the best dynamics in terms of Hours Watched among all platforms (+1.35%).
-
Trovo's Hours Watched dropped to the level of early 2021.
-
Kick demonstrates explosive growth after the mobile app release.
Streams Charts gets all its stats in-house, and for those of you who want to access every number from YouTube, including YouTube Gaming, for your usage, all you need to do is subscribe to our PRO service here for $250 and gain data for 15M+ channels. If you want to focus on particular channels or platforms, buy our Streamer service at $9 per channel per month or $99 annually per channel.
Twitch Viewer Statistics in Q1 2023
In Q1 2023 (January-March), Twitch garnered 5.28B Hours Watched, which is almost the same as it had in Q4 2022. The Amazon-owned platform showed a slight increase due to the start of new esports seasons in Dota 2, Valorant, and League of Legends, as well as several game releases. For example, in February, Hogwarts Legacy briefly became the most popular game on the platform. Other new releases that enjoyed success included Sons of the Forest, Resident Evil 4, and the beta test for Diablo IV.
It is also worth noting that the first quarter includes the shortest month of the year (February), which means it had two fewer days than the fourth quarter of 2022.
The top category on Twitch for Q1 2023 was Just Chatting, which grew by 7% over three months. Following this were League of Legends (+11.5%), Grand Theft Auto V (+5%), Valorant (+32%), and Minecraft (+36%). Valorant's significant growth was due to the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN Sao Paulo and the start of a new competitive season, while Minecraft saw several major streaming events at the beginning of the year, such as Squid Craft 2 and Minecraft Extremo.
As for the most-watched channels, Kai Cenat was the unquestionable leader of Q1 2023. The total Hours Watched of the American grew by 70% compared to the previous quarter, largely thanks to the 28-day Mafiathon held in February.
The top 5 channels on Twitch included xQc, Gaules, and ESL_CSGO, while the official Riot Games channel was replaced by the channel of the Kings League, Spanish media football league with an unusual format that brought together top streamers and professional football players. The broadcasts of the first season of Kings League regularly made it into the top most popular on the platform, with one of them attracting over 1.1M Peak Viewers on the league's official channel.
Viewer statistics for YouTube Live & YouTube Gaming in Q1 2023
While many content creators perceive Twitch as a platform for streaming games, the situation is different for YouTube, where non-gaming live streams gather a much larger audience than gaming ones.
In Q1 2023, YouTube Live garnered 8.12B Hours Watched, slightly less than the previous quarter, but the changes are insignificant (less than 1%). The most viewed categories on the platform were Entertainment, News & Politics, and Gaming. People & Blogs and Music followed, switching places compared to the previous quarter. The top most popular channels mostly consist of news and children's content.
Unlike YouTube Live in general, the YouTube Gaming segment showed growth of almost 13% compared to the previous quarter. The growth of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang section played a big role here, as esports streams of the game are most popular on YouTube. The first quarter of the year included the M4 World Championship, the largest ML:BB tournament. In February and March, the first matches of the new MPL seasons took place, which also made a significant contribution to the total Hours Watched.
In Q1 2023, the share of YouTube Gaming increased from 15% to 17% compared to the previous quarter. The most popular titles on the platform during this period were Mobile Legends, Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto V, Apex Legends, and League of Legends. In the previous quarter, PUBG Mobile and Pokémon Karmesin und Purpur were among the leaders, but in the last few months, they dropped to 8th and 20th positions, respectively.
It's worth noting that Pokémon Karmesin und Purpur was released in November 2022. In the first weeks after release, it attracted the attention of many franchise fans, and the number of viewers in the section peaked at 240K people.
Viewer statistics for Nimo TV in Q1 2023
NimoTV continues to gradually decline (despite a small MoM stat increase in Q1) after ceasing operations in 14 countries in April 2022. Over the past three months, the platform, which mainly caters to Southeast Asia, garnered 347.4M Hours Watched. This is a 21.3% drop compared to the previous quarter. The most popular categories on the platform remained GTA V, League of Legends, and Free Fire.
Viewership statistics for Kick in Q1 2023
This is the first quarterly report for the new American platform Kick. In the first three months of 2023, it accumulated 58M Hours Watched. This is significantly less than the leaders, but more than Trovo or Nonolive.
Kick is gradually gaining an audience but is currently in a phase of development where its indicators can increase in leaps and bounds. For example, in March, its total Hours Watched increased by 2.5 times solely due to the release of the mobile application. A similar effect can occur if a top streamer from Twitch or YouTube comes to the platform. Even one such content creator can significantly influence the audience coverage of the entire platform.
The most popular categories on Kick are still Slots & Casino and Just Chatting, and the most viewers are gathered on streams by Adin Ross and Trainwreck. For a more detailed analysis of the platform, read our separate article about Kick.
Viewer statistics for Trovo in Q1 2023
Trovo, which has many streamers from Eastern Europe and South America, saw its quarterly Hours Watched decrease to 42.9M. On the one hand, the decline was only 4.72% compared to the previous quarter. On the other hand, in terms of Hours Watched, the platform rolled back to the levels of early 2021 when it was just gaining popularity.
It is worth noting that in its most successful month (April 2022), Trovo gained around 43.6M Hours Watched. Currently, the platform was unable to achieve even that much for an entire quarter.
Viewer statistics for AfreecaTV in Q1 2023
AfreecaTV garnered 294.4M Hours Watched in the first quarter of 2023, which is nearly 14% lower than in Q4 2022. Surprisingly, Minecraft became the most popular gaming category on AfreecaTV, amassing 57M Hours Watched in the quarter. Streams of League of Legends and StarCraft: Remastered continue to be highly popular on the platform, which is not surprising given that most of AfreecaTV's viewers are from South Korea, where these games have a cult following.
Viewership statistics for Bigo LIVE in Q1 2023
In Q4 2022, Bigo LIVE showed the best growth in terms of Hours Watched among all platforms (+6%). However, the situation changed at the beginning of 2023, as the platform lost 18.5%. It should be noted that Bigo LIVE mainly streams mobile titles such as Free Fire, PUBG Mobile, and Mobile Legends. The platform is especially popular among viewers from Arab countries.
Viewership statistics for Nonolive in Q1 2023
In the first quarter of 2023, the total Hours Watched on Nonolive increased from 26.2M to 26.6M. The growth was only 1.35%, but many other platforms would envy such dynamics. PUBG Mobile remains the obvious leader among Nonolive categories, with this game alone garnering more than 10.1M Hours Watched in Q1 2023. The largest audience on Nonolive gathers for streams in Arabic and Turkish.
Viewership statistics for Mildom in Q1 2023
In Q1 2023, the Japanese streaming service Mildom accumulated only 5.3M Hours Watched, which is 21% less than in the last quarter of last year. The service only features streams by Japanese creators, including representatives of the popular esports organization Crazy Raccoon. The content on Mildom mostly consists of talk shows or royal battle games, such as PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends, Fortnite, and others.
It should be noted that significant declines are observed on almost all platforms that are fully or partially focused on Asia.