Electronic Arts’ FIFA series is one of the most iconic sports franchises in gaming. Listed as the best-selling sports video game franchise in Guinness World Records, EA has produced high-performing titles under the brand for 30 years. Game Elevate reported that the latest installment, FIFA 23, has sold over 14 million copies since its launch on September 30, 2022. This makes it 6% more successful than its predecessor, FIFA 22. However, as the 30th title of the franchise, FIFA 23 will also be the last EA game under the FIFA banner. We’ve had a detailed look at the game’s performance in the streaming world since the start of the year.
FIFA 23 on the biggest streaming sites
FIFA 23 has accumulated over 57 million Hours Watched across streaming platforms in 2023. FIFA players might be drawn in by new game features, such as women’s club football or hyper-realistic athlete animations. Moreover, it’s likely that fans of the franchise didn't want to miss out on the series’ final installment. Still, the game didn’t make it among the top ten most-watched categories on Twitch or YouTube in 2023. With 48 million Hours Watched and 450,000 Peak Viewers, FIFA 23 takes the 14th place of all categories on Twitch.
On YouTube, it sits at 33rd place, with 6.6 million HW and 150,000 PV. Unsurprisingly, FIFA 23 performs best on Twitch and YouTube, as these are the two biggest streaming sites. However, Facebook stands out from the rest. Despite being the second-lowest platform for FIFA 23 overall, it beats Bigo and Trovo in terms of PV and almost matches YouTube’s peak viewership. Over 140,000 PV watched FIFA 23 streams on Facebook, whereas Bigo and Trovo only had 9,000 and 1,400 PV.
FIFA 23 on Twitch
Since Twitch is the most popular platform for FIFA 23 streams by far, we’ll next take a deeper dive into the game’s performance on Twitch. Between Januray 1 and February 14, FIFA 23 was streamed in 36 languages. Unsurprisingly, English made up the biggest share. Of the total 47 million FIFA 23 Hours Watched, 28% can be attributed to English streams. Interestingly, English channels usually attract more viewers: for example, 49% of all Twitch viewers tuned into English streams in the last seven days.
In the case of FIFA 23, other languages are popular, too. German, Spanish, and Portuguese streams each accounted for about 13% of FIFA 23 HW on Twitch. This is most likely because football is a widely-celebrated sport in these countries. However, most Portuguese streams are from Brazilian creators rather than Portuguese ones. The situation was similar with French and Italian streams, which represented 9% and 8% of all HW, respectively. Arabic also has an uncommonly high representation among FIFA 23 streams. Although this language hasn’t made it into the top 10 Twitch languages of the last seven days, it took seventh place in this case.
Since the beginning of 2023, over 7 million Unique Authorized Viewers have watched FIFA 23 streams on Twitch. Here’s what other Twitch content they followed. Just Chatting shares the highest intersection with FIFA 23 fans. 78% of FIFA 23 viewers also tuned into Just Chatting streams. This doesn’t come as a surprise since Just Chatting was the fifth most-watched category in the same period.
In second place is RPG Hogwarts Legacy. This game has been booming on Twitch since its release, attracting nearly 41% of FIFA 23 viewers. It’s further unsurprising that 31% of FIFA 23 viewers watched streams in the Sports category. Other Twitch categories sharing viewership with FIFA 23 include FPS titles, such as Valorant and Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto 5, Minecraft, and League of Legends. Some categories nearly made it into the top 10. For instance, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was watched by 23% of FIFA 23 viewers.
Top FIFA 23 streamers
Finally, we’ve distilled the most-watched FIFA 23 streamers across all platforms since the start of 2023. All channels from this list stream on Twitch, except for YouTube creator DjMaRiiO. However, the list is much more diverse regarding streaming languages. The top 10 FIFA creators stream in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French. The watch time distribution is also relatively even, with six out of the top ten accumulating over 1 million Hours Watched with their FIFA 23 streams.
Still, English Twitch streamer runthefutmarket takes the lead. Since the release of FIFA 23, he’s played the game almost exclusively, accumulating 1.4 million Hours Watched. With this dedication to the franchise, he’s made a name for himself in the FIFA scene. Runthefutmarket is followed by German streamer GamerBrother with 1.29 million HW. Although he mostly plays FIFA 23, GamerBrother occasionally tries other categories, such as Sports, Just Chatting, and Hogwarts Legacy.
As mentioned, DjMaRiiO stands out as the only YouTube creator among the top ten. He’s close behind GamerBrother with 1.27 million HW. For over five years, the Spanish YouTuber has entertained fans with his football content both IRL and in the game. Today, he has about 8.7 million subscribers. Finally, xQc is worth highlighting. The Canadian streamer plays various games and is not particularly known in the FIFA scene. However, he achieved over 900,000 HW with his FIFA23 streams thanks to his incredible popularity on Twitch.
Although FIFA 23 isn’t among the most-watched categories across streaming platforms, it can attract thousands of viewers. Moreover, some streamers have built an impressive following specializing in FIFA content. As the FIFA game era ends, we look forward to seeing how EA’s new football franchise, Sports FC, will be perceived.
