Q4 2025 closed out the year with the global livestreaming market surpassing 30 billion Hours Watched, marking a clear increase compared to Q3. The quarter combined two contrasting forces: a packed calendar of end-of-season esports championships, award shows, and ceremonies that traditionally attract large audiences, followed by a calmer holiday period around Christmas and New Year. Together, these factors shaped how attention accumulated and shifted across platforms at the end of the year.
At the top of the market, overall dynamics remained relatively moderate despite the headline growth. Major platforms largely held their ground, though their trajectories continued to diverge. TikTok extended its upward momentum and audience share, while Kick saw the most visible pullback among large platforms, highlighting how newer ecosystems can be more exposed to seasonal slowdowns and content gaps.
Smaller platforms followed a different rhythm. Each showed its own mix of signals, but the broader picture points to mild declines across most of them. These drops were limited, yet they underline how seasonal shifts and competitive pressure tend to affect smaller players first. The full report breaks down these patterns in detail and explains what they mean for the livestreaming landscape heading into 2026.
Major takeaways:
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Total livestreaming viewership outside mainland China surpassed 30 billion Hours Watched in Q4 2025, marking a 2% quarter-over-quarter increase compared to Q3.
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Compared to Q3, platform-level performance in Q4 was notably more balanced, with fewer sharp spikes or drops in viewership, even though moderate fluctuations were still present across the market.
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Among major platforms, Kick recorded the steepest decline in viewer activity, including a drop in gaming’s share of total watch time, despite the platform delivering its most successful esports initiative of the year.
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TikTok posted the strongest watch time growth among large platforms, supported by continued expansion beyond gaming, while gaming content itself saw only marginal gains.
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On Twitch, gaming’s share of total watch time climbed past 76% in Q4, driven by a dense esports calendar that included the industry’s largest event, the League of Legends World Championship.
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Smaller platforms followed a similar overall pattern, with SteamTV showing the most positive momentum, while Rumble and SOOP Global experienced the most pronounced declines within this segment.
YouTube remained the largest livestreaming platform by total watch time, maintaining roughly 35% more than its closest competitor. Overall viewership edged up quarter over quarter, although growth remained modest. Gaming content continued to lose ground, with its share of total watch time declining slightly to around 15%.
TikTok reached a new milestone in Q4, surpassing 10 billion Hours Watched in a single quarter for the first time this year. Among major platforms, it posted the strongest growth, up 8.5% QoQ, reinforcing its momentum heading into year-end. Despite this scale, TikTok still recorded the lowest share of gaming content among top services, at under 15% of total viewership.
Twitch extended its downward trend in watch time, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of decline. Even so, total viewership remained above the symbolic 4 billion hours per quarter threshold. A packed esports calendar pushed gaming’s share of watch time higher, with gaming content accounting for 76% of total viewing in Q4.
Kick recorded its first quarter-over-quarter decline in viewership since launch. The drop was not structural, driven primarily by a quieter period for viral content rather than a loss of platform relevance. At the same time, streamer activity reached record levels, reinforcing Kick’s position as an established top-tier platform where the next challenge lies in sustaining audience attention rather than acquiring it.
Smaller livestreaming services remained highly volatile in Q4. Across the segment, viewership stayed broadly within the range seen throughout 2025, with no clear signs of sustained breakout growth or structural audience loss. Strong quarterly results continued to intermingle with weaker ones, reinforcing the absence of a stable long-term trend for most smaller platforms.
SteamTV delivered the strongest growth among smaller platforms, with Hours Watched up 66% QoQ. The increase was driven by a dense lineup of award shows, gaming ceremonies, and showcase broadcasts, many of which were streamed directly on game pages. Additional momentum came from Valve’s flagship esports event, the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, where autoplay broadcasts generated significant viewership, together explaining the platform’s standout performance.
Korean platforms SOOP Korea and CHZZK posted moderate viewership growth in the 3-5% range. Esports played a key role, particularly the League of Legends World Championship, which continues to attract extensive co-streaming activity. Creator-led broadcasts, especially from Korean talent in the game’s strongest market, helped support steady audience gains.
More pronounced declines were recorded on Rumble and SOOP Global. In Rumble’s case, the quarter saw weaker demand for US-centric right-wing political content, which historically drives much of the platform’s viewership. SOOP Global, meanwhile, continued to struggle with expanding beyond its core Korean audience, limiting its ability to offset softness in other content areas.
YouTube Live viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Q4 2025 was a stable quarter for YouTube Live, with performance largely in line with expectations. November stood out as the strongest month, with total watch time coming close to the 5 billion Hours Watched mark, driven by a dense content calendar and sustained regional demand.
Regionally, audience interest concentrated around different content formats. Interactive reality shows performed especially well across Hispanic markets in Latin America, entertainment content remained strong in the Philippines, while football continued to be a major driver of viewership in Brazil. In terms of categories, Entertainment once again led overall watch time, followed by News & Politics, with Sports and People & Blogs rounding out the top-performing segments.
Gaming viewership on YouTube declined by roughly 10% QoQ, totaling around 2 billion Hours Watched in Q4. November was the only month to exceed 700 million hours of gaming watch time, supported by a heavier esports calendar, while October and December both settled at lower levels.
In terms of games, League of Legends remained the platform’s most-watched title. Roblox climbed to second place, overtaking Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, partly due to reduced mobile esports activity during the quarter. Notably, Grand Theft Auto V entered the top five games on the platform, ranking ahead of Minecraft.
Despite the volume of esports broadcasts, the most-watched gaming channel of the quarter was TheBurntPeanut, emerging as one of YouTube Gaming’s biggest breakout successes at the end of the year.\
TikTok Live viewership statistics for Q3 2025
Q4 2025 marked TikTok Live’s strongest quarter of the year across key viewership indicators. Total watch time surpassed 10 billion Hours Watched for the first time, while peak concurrent viewership also reached a new milestone at over 7.2 million, up 3.2% QoQ. Together, these results reinforced TikTok’s position as the fastest-growing major livestreaming platform heading into year-end.
Content dynamics remained largely unchanged. Chats continued to dominate by a wide margin, with Fashion firmly in second place, followed by Outdoors and Talent. All four non-gaming categories continued to generate significantly more viewership than any single game, although the gap narrowed slightly in Q4. On the gaming side, Roblox remained the most-watched title, while Mobile Legends: Bang Bang moved ahead of Free Fire during the quarter.
Twitch viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Q4 2025 turned out to be Twitch’s weakest quarter of the year in terms of both Hours Watched and Peak Viewers. December stood out as the strongest month within the period by watch time, but it was not enough to offset softer performance earlier in the quarter, leaving overall results below previous quarterly highs.
The gaming landscape on the platform saw notable shifts. While League of Legends remained the most-watched game, followed by Counter-Strike in second place, the biggest change came at third, where ARC Raiders surged in popularity. The new release overtook Grand Theft Auto V after quickly gaining traction within the streaming community.
On the creator side, overall top streamer performance declined quarter over quarter due to fewer viral moments compared to Q3, opening space for gaming-focused creators to climb the rankings, including TheBurntPeanut, who benefited from sustained interest in core gaming content.
Kick viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Q4 2025 marked a turning point for Kick. The platform recorded its first quarter-over-quarter decline in Hours Watched, a sign that overall audience reach may be approaching a ceiling, even as streamer activity sits at record levels. At the same time, Kick set a new all-time high in Peak Viewers, reaching 4.6 million, a figure that exceeded Twitch’s peak during the same period and highlighted the platform’s continued ability to concentrate large live audiences.
That peak was closely tied to Stream Fighters 4, organized by Luis “WestCol” Villa, which accounted for the majority of the record audience. WestCol also finished the quarter as the platform’s most-watched creator by total Hours Watched.
Category dynamics showed an interesting shift as well: non-gaming categories moved into the top three, including gambling, a vertical long associated with Kick’s identity. Notably, League of Legends entered the platform’s top five categories, while Counter-Strike did not, despite extensive coverage of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 during the quarter.
SOOP Korea viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Q4 2025 delivered a largely stable quarter for SOOP Korea, though with a clear downward trajectory from October through December. League of Legends returned as the platform’s top category for the first time since Q1 2025, driven by the League of Legends World Championship 2025, which once again generated massive domestic viewership. StarCraft ranked second, reinforcing the platform’s continued reliance on established esports titles to anchor audience demand.
CHZZK viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Q4 2025 marked CHZZK’s strongest quarter of the year across both Hours Watched and Peak Viewers, reinforcing its position as the more gaming-focused of the two major Korean platforms. The uplift was driven largely by the closing stretch of the esports calendar, with League of Legends once again emerging as the platform’s top category, supported by sustained interest around the end of the competitive season and major international events.
SteamTV viewership statistics for Q4 2025
SteamTV posted a sharp surge in viewership during Q4, driven primarily by autoplay broadcasts of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 for Counter-Strike. Alongside these automated streams, the platform also generated steady “active” viewership from regular live content, with titles like Euro Truck Simulator 2 and several other games contributing additional watch time.
Rumble viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Q4 2025 was Rumble’s weakest quarter of the year across all major metrics. Compared to its strongest period in Q1, total Hours Watched nearly halved, while Peak Viewers dropped by 75%. The steepest decline came in December, when holiday season dynamics hit the platform particularly hard, with watch time falling by around 50% month over month. Despite the overall downturn, the platform’s top channels remained largely unchanged, with Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes once again occupying the top positions by viewership.
Nimo viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Q4 2025 was Nimo TV’s weakest quarter of the year by Hours Watched, yet it simultaneously recorded growth in Peak Viewers. Monthly viewership remained consistent throughout the quarter, fluctuating in a narrow 24-26 million Hours Watched range without sharp drops. League of Legends continued to dominate the platform, supported by strong Vietnamese audiences and sustained interest in esports broadcasts, including the League of Legends World Championship 2025.
Trovo viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Trovo posted lower absolute numbers in Q4 but followed a pattern similar to Nimo TV. The quarter became the platform’s weakest of the year by Hours Watched, while Peak Viewers ticked up slightly QoQ, indicating a more concentrated audience. November stood out as the strongest month, with gaming watch time surpassing 4 million hours. Reflecting the platform’s sizeable Russian-speaking audience, the most-watched titles were those popular across the post-Soviet region, with Lineage II reclaiming the top spot ahead of World of Tanks.
Biglo Live viewership statistics for Q4 2025
Bigo Live delivered a stable Q4 2025, finishing the year with its second-best quarter overall. Total Hours Watched came in slightly below Q3 levels, but the decline was limited and did not signal any meaningful shift in platform performance.
Audience interest on the platform continued to be almost entirely mobile-focused. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang once again ranked as the most-watched title, while Tanki X claimed second place, surpassing established mobile heavyweights such as Free Fire and PUBG Mobile.
SOOP Global viewership statistics for Q4 2025
In Q4 2025, SOOP Global’s viewership rolled back to levels last seen in Q1 2025, a development that points to mounting challenges in sustaining audience growth outside its core markets. At the same time, viewer preferences on the platform continued to evolve. While SOOP Global initially skewed heavily toward gaming, IRL content kept climbing quarter over quarter, becoming the platform’s third most-watched category in Q4. On the gaming side, Valorant emerged as the leading title of the quarter.