The first quarter of 2024 saw some highly popular broadcasts. Many events featured companies, organizations, and individual content creators making waves in the industry. Some of these streams also hint at bigger things to come later in the year, with plenty of potential for these creators left for the remainder of the year.
Twitch Most Popular Streams Q1 2024
On Twitch, Spanish streamer ibai reigned supreme. Ibai is one of the most-followed channels on Twitch and one of the main record-setters of the platform.
On March 4, Iibai hosted a presentation for La Velada del Año IV. The stream reached 798.3K Peak Viewers, not only becoming his most popular stream since last year’s event, but Twitch’s most popular stream of the first quarter. Hype is clearly high for the upcoming fourth iteration, and Ibai will have another chance to improve his record as the most popular Twitch streamer by peak concurrent viewership in mid-July.
PGL also received considerable viewership for the Grand Final match of their PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024. The event was not only PGL’s first Major tournament in a couple of years but the first Major event for the newly released Counter-Strike 2. The tournament was a wild success, becoming one of the most popular Counter-Strike events in years and one of the most-watched events for the game ever. Multiple of the event's matches broadcast by the PGL channel made it into this quarter's top 10 most popular streams.
The Grand Final between FaZe Clan and NAVI garnered 494.3K Peak Viewers on PGL’s official Twitch broadcast, and many more viewers overall. NAVI brought a sizable Ukrainian audience with them to the final, but many of these viewers were present on other broadcasts instead of the official English-language PGL Twitch stream. Ultimately, PGL’s high peak viewership for their own channel reflects the overall popularity of the event as a whole, rather than one team’s fanbase.
Also in esports, tarik generated 313.5K Peak Viewers for his coverage of the VCT 2024 Masters Madrid grand final. The esports professional turned streamer is one of Valorant’s most popular coverage channels for esports events, and the match itself was perfect for his viewership. The grand final featured Gen.G against Sentinels, the latter of which have signed tarik to their organization. Tarik’s viewership was enabled by the Sentinels fanbase as he cheered them on through the match, eventually resulting in their first international LAN title in years.
The two remaining top streams tapped into two of Twitch’s largest demographics: French and Spanish-speaking fans. Michou hosted the first episode of his new ‘Dancing With Internet Stars’ show in early March, reaching 403K Peak Viewers. An adaption of the TV series Strictly Come Dancing, the show features celebrities specifically involved with the internet for this special version. Michou had previously competed on the French version of Dancing with the Stars and was brought back as the host for the new internet-focused edition.
On the Spanish-speaking side of Twitch, Spanish content creator TheGrefg hosted another edition of his Premios Esland. Premios Esland is an awards show focused on content creation and streaming, specifically in the Spanish-speaking spheres of these industries. The third edition of the show received 408.1K Peak Viewers, making it less popular than last year’s iteration which garnered 1.75M PV, but still a considerable viewership.
YouTube Gaming Most Popular Streams Q1 2024
At the top of YouTube Gaming’s first quarter of 2024 was Brawl Stars. Released in 2018 by SUPERCELL, who also worked on Clash Royale and Clash of Clans, the MOBA shooter has become one of the world’s favourite mobile gaming titles.
In mid-February, Brawl Stars hosted another edition of their Brawl Talks. The show acts as a medium for the game’s developers to communicate directly with the fanbase about upcoming changes, the desired outcomes, and the philosophy behind these changes. Their recent show reached 750.3K Peak Viewers who were particularly excited about the new changes to the ranked mode in-game.
Staying on the video games wagon, BANDAI NAMCO Europe hosted the quarters second-most-popular stream on YouTube Gaming. The Japanese game company is the publisher of Elden Ring, one of the most popular and culturally impactful games of the 2020s. After releasing in 2022, fans have been eagerly awaiting new content, despite the monstrous scale of the base game.
Developers FromSoftware were finally ready to show off the first gameplay of the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. The event received 687.8K Peak Viewers for the short live broadcast, and hype will surely continue to build behind the title. The game was one of live-streaming’s favourite titles of 2022, and the new DLC may drive the game back to the top of live-streaming platforms.
PlayStation also received a considerable viewership of 460.5K PV for their State of Play presentation at the end of January. This quarter’s presentation highlighted new content for some key franchises, such as Death Stranding, Silent Hill, and Dragon’s Dogma. With a plethora of new content coming to PlayStation, many of Sony’s upcoming titles will likely garner high viewership online, and this is backed up by the huge live audience for their State of Play presentation teasing these games.
On the esports side of YouTube Gaming, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was by far the most popular esports discipline on the platform. The official MPL Indonesia channel received 615.8K Peak Viewers for their coverage of the MPL Indonesia Season 13: the thirteenth edition of the regional professional league for ML:BB in Indonesia. The channel earned this viewership for the Week 2 Group Stage match between ONIC and RRQ Hoshi, two of the league’s most popular teams.
The MPL Indonesia is one of the world’s most-watched esports series and Season 13 of the league continued to impress and dominate the YouTube Gaming esports audience. In terms of community casting, previous Dota 2 and ML:BB professional player R7 Tatsumaki garnered 377.8K PV for his coverage of a Russian esports event. As an Indonesian, his viewership for this event represents the attention of Indonesian fans towards these international ML:BB events. Indonesian viewership for ML:BB is one of the most important audiences for the discipline not only regionally but also internationally.
Kick Most Popular Streams Q1 2024
On Kick, Belarussian streamer mellstroy271 recorded his most popular stream ever on Kick with 720.6K Peak Viewers. He has become known for his gambling-related content on Kick, and his most popular stream was no different. The streamer generated high impressions and click-throughs thanks to an eye-catching title claiming a $3.2M deposit to a gambling site, which he would gamble on throughout his broadcast. The stream also featured another Russian-language streamer Morgenshtern, who brought his own audience to the broadcast.
Adin Ross didn’t only make the top of Kick with his activities during Q1 of this year, but headlines too. The streamer hosted a collaborative broadcast with American rapper Playboi Carti, but things fell apart as the musician only appeared for a brief 5-minute appearance.
Rumours circulated that the rapper was given $2M cash and a Ferrari for his appearance on the broadcast, and the situation went viral. Nevertheless, the stream was still his most popular of the quarter, receiving 487K PV. Alongside mellstroy271, Adin also hosted other broadcasts during early 2024 that rank within the platform’s most popular 10 streams of the quarter.
WestCol, one of Colombia’s most famous content creators, hosted a special indoor football event on his channel in collaboration with Colombian singer Blessd. The singer would field a team for a five-a-side game against famed footballer Ronaldinho. The stream hit 196.9K Peak Viewers, becoming his channel’s second most popular broadcast. He previously reached over 806K concurrent viewers for a special event on Kick, so the Colombian streamer will be aiming high for the rest of 2024 to bridge this gap.
Zelika generated 154K Peak Viewers thanks to a star-studded Garena Free Fire squad. The streamer invited 7 other notable Garena Free Fire creators to a 4v4 match, and it was successful enough to become his most popular stream ever. These creators came from all over the globe, allowing Zelika to tap into a large and diversified international audience.
FInally, n3on reached 153.4K Peak Viewers thanks to a failed boxing event. It seems odd to describe one of Kick’s most popular streams of 2024 so far as a failure, but that is what happened. The streamer planned to host a match between American content creator Bryce Hall and Russian Vitaly, but things fell apart during the live-stream of the planned match. A brawl broke out between the teams of each fighter, and ultimately, Vitaly walked away from the match.
Despite the planned boxing match not taking place, the stream still became n3on’s most popular content ever on Kick. The American streamer continues to utilise collaborative content to grow his channel; all of his most popular broadcasts either are sponsored, or feature another content creator. Now, his most popular stream is a collaboration between two other influencers, and him acting as the host for the event.
