Top video game publishers of 2025

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The year gone by was another busy one for video game publishers, as they were busy rolling out updates, fixes and new games for their legions of fans to enjoy. Of course, many of these companies also pulled double duty, playing the part of organizer for some of the most prominent esports tournaments in the world.

In 2025, audiences consumed millions of hours of video gaming content across livestreaming platforms, with TikTok standing out as a massive destination across regions. Remarkably, ten of the most renowned video game publishers notched over 1 million hours in watch time cumulatively across all their titles, showing that the segment continues to be one of the most preferred among global viewers.

As part of our year-end recap series, Streams Charts has compiled the 2025 rankings of the most-watched video game publishers. These firms managed to capture the most attention in these 12 months and dominated the livestreaming segment, with most of them enjoying year-on-year growth across key viewership metrics.

#10 Level Infinite

This leaderboard features a who's who of the video gaming business, with the tenth spot going to Level Infinite. The international brand of Tencent Games, stated to be operated from its offices in Singapore and Amsterdam, accrued just over 1 billion Hours Watched (HW) in 2025. This number came from internationally renowned titles like Garena Liên Quân Mobile (Arena of Valor's Vietnamese version), Arena Breakout and Age of Empires Mobile. However, PUBG Mobile was the star for Level Infinite, hitting 100 million HW across three platforms. The game's popularity in Southeast Asia was reinforced by the fact that it found the most viewers on TikTok, which itself has grown massively in the region over the past two years, both in livestreaming and esports broadcasting.

#9 Blizzard Entertainment

Next comes Blizzard Entertainment, the globally renowned publisher best associated with the Warcraft franchise, with 1.03 billion watch hours. The 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game, World of Warcraft, was also its highest grosser by watch time last year (on Twitch), putting up double the numbers of any other title under the American video game developer. We must also mention that Blizzard Entertainment boasts one of the most impressive lineups of games available across livestreaming platforms, consisting of other famous entries like Overwatch 2, StarCraft, Hearthstone and Diablo IV.

#8 Moonton

An entry carried almost exclusively by one game, Moonton, which racked up 1.08 billion HW in 2025, has worked hard to make Mobile Legends: Bang Bang the premier name in the global mobile gaming segment. The MOBA, one of the top titles in the esports landscape today by peak concurrent viewership, accumulated a gargantuan 400 million HW on two platforms in 2025 (TikTok and YouTube). Two of the most preferred platforms in SEA, combined with the region's undoubted favourite game, were bound to produce such staggering numbers. However, we must also mention that the Chinese multinational video game developer and publisher has worked hard to introduce other games to a global audience, including the recently released Magic Chess: Go Go, whose debut world championship was ongoing at the time of writing.

#7 Garena

Garena is another publisher on this list with an enviable portfolio of games, and it reached 1.16 billion HW last year. Garena Free Fire remained the crown jewel for the Singaporean game developer last year, and similar to MLBB, it did well in regions where TikTok and YouTube are prevalent (SEA, Brazil). Garena also had Delta Force, a high-paced tactical shooter that emerged as one of the biggest game releases of 2025. It quickly gained massive traction, especially in China, and it completed an entire season of competitive play recently to decent livestreaming numbers.

#6 Roblox Corporation

Roblox Corporation is the one entry here whose numbers come exclusively from one game, Roblox, as it touched 1.18 billion watch hours in 2025. This wonderfully weird virtual universe that lets you create, share experiences with friends, and be anything you can imagine grew exponentially last year, thanks to a wide array of games across genres becoming available to players. A free-for-all game platform with over 150 million daily users (most of them children), this rise in influence came with its own controversies, but Roblox remains a force on livestreaming.

#5 Valve

Next on the list is Valve, the name behind legendary titles like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike, which hit 1.98 billion HW in 2025. The above two titles did a majority of the heavy lifting, as both notched over 400 million watch hours last year. However, we must note that the American video game developer, publisher, and digital distribution company has put out some other gems that continue to enjoy niche viewing audiences, including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2.

#4 Take-Two Interactive

Take-Two Interactive, the company behind the monstrously successful Grand Theft Auto franchise, comes in the fourth spot with 2.34 billion HW last year. Its most-watched game, unsurprisingly, was GTA V, which accumulated over 500 million watch hours on Twitch and Kick. Two of the game's most popular role-playing servers, Respect RP and No Pixel RP, also made it here, thanks to their success among Kick content creators in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Red Dead Redemption 2 also played a part in contributing to this success, with the severely underrated offering still finding lots of attention among fans of the open world genre.

#3 Rockstar Games

Kicking off the podium is Rockstar Games, the American video game publisher based in New York City. As a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, most of their assets and Intellectual Properties (IP) are the same, but Rockstar managed to put up a slightly higher number of 2.48 billion HW, thanks to GTA V's success on NimoTV. The China-based service remains a massive hub for SEA gamers who love the Grand Theft Auto franchise, which hit 147.38 million watch hours on the platform last year.

A majority of Rockstar Games' games have found success in the West and the MENA region, attested by the fact that its games received the most attention on Twitch and Kick. Interestingly, they had an almost equal share of the watch time for these titles last year, with the former just about coming out on top.

#2 Riot Games

Touching almost 3.18 billion Hours Watched last year to come second is Riot Games, the name behind the biggest game in esports livestreaming today, League of Legends. This PC MOBA almost registered a billion watch hours by itself on Twitch, led by the success of an esports ecosystem that has made its regional leagues and global championships unmissable. The ever-improving Valorant also contributed healthily, adding almost another billion HW across livestreaming platforms. We also have to mention Teamfight Tactics, which has managed to build a niche and loyal online fanbase for itself over the years.

Among the top three game publishers on this table, Riot Games perhaps had the most lopsided difference between the top and the remaining platforms. Twitch was by far the top choice for viewers of its games, contributing over 54% to the overall watch time. Moreover, Kick and SOOP Korea were barely separable, showing that the intense passion the latter's fanbase has for titles like LoL and Valorant more than makes up for its lack of a global presence compared to the former.

#1 Tencent Games

Atop the publisher's leaderboard, and only the second name to surpass 3 billion HW in 2025, is Tencent Games. The global video game division of Chinese tech giant Tencent boasts an unmatched array of games under its supervision. With Riot Games being a part of the family, the company's most-watched title last year was LoL. Other offerings like PUBG Mobile, Arena of Valor, Call of Duty: Mobile, FC Online and FIFA Online 4 also contributed handsomely to show that they too enjoy fame in the livestreaming scene.

Reflecting the focus and primary popularity of Tencent Games' titles in Asia, especially its Southeast and Central regions, is the fact that YouTube and TikTok combined for over 45% of its total watch time in 2025. Moreover, its top three mobile games — PUBG Mobile, Arena of Valor and Call of Duty: Mobile — contributed over 40% ot this number, reiterating the genre's omnipresence in the above regions.

In 2025, what stood out was the enduring popularity of legacy titles like Counter-Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, MLBB and PUBG Mobile on livestreaming. These titles continued to attract high viewership engagement, showing just how beloved they had become among players, audiences and streamers.

We also saw TikTok rise to unprecedented heights, with many of the top video games mentioned above seeing their highest HW numbers coming on the video-sharing app, especially those popular in Southeast Asia. It will be interesting to see how the platform dynamics shape up when we revisit these rankings in a year, but we can be sure that TikTok is here to stay as a major platform.

Most-watched video game publishers of 2025