For several years now Streams Charts has been compiling and sharing viewership statistics from various streaming services. In 2021 we published quarterly and monthly Twitch viewership reports, and now it's time to sum up the platform's results of the year.
Twitch experienced many changes in 2021. Some of them were warmly welcomed by the community, while others were criticized. Among the changes that were positively met were the introduction of regional pricing, which has made paid subscriptions more affordable. But the removal of the iconic emote PogChamp with its subsequent replacement by KomodoHype and restrictions on embedded streams were perceived negatively. But despite the occasional criticism on social media, Twitch's audience continued to grow.
Twitch viewership dynamics in 2021
Compared with 2020, the total Hours Watched on the platform increased by almost 30% and amounted to 24.03 billion hours. The average number of channels on air increased to 104.7K, which is almost 20% more than in 2020.
The highest viewership activity on Twitch was in the first half of the year. The first quarter of 2021 reached the maximum online peak (6.57 million Peak Viewers) and the second quarter was the leader in total Hours Watched (6.47 billion Hours Watched).
Top newcomers
Along with the growth of viewership on Twitch, some new names gained popularity on the platform. Several channels managed to grow quite rapidly thanks to the streamer's popularity on other platforms.
The Italian youtuber Lyon ranks first. His Twitch channel LyonWGFLive was created in 2012, but Lyones started his active streamer career in January 2021. He spent 581 hours on air and managed to accumulate 22.7 million Hours Watched.
In second place is VonDice with the result of 9.3 million Hours Watched, whose broadcasts are completely devoted to gambling in the Slots category. This charismatic streamer gained his popularity largely due to his acquaintance with ROSHTEIN, who inspired him to create his Twitch channel. It should be noted that the very first broadcast of VonDice in February 2021 was followed by more than 16K Peak Viewers.
Third place in the rankings is taken by the channel ImKaiCenat, owned by a youtuber Kai Cenat. In 2021, viewers spent 8.15 million hours watching his broadcasts. His most popular category was Just Chatting, which accounted for 70% of all time spent the streamer was on air.
ZeROBADASS, also known as ZeRO on YouTube, started his streamer career on Twitch as a content creator in the esports club FURIA. Last year his broadcasts amassed more than 7 million Hours Watched. This result placed him fourth in our ranking.
In fifth place is Jackeyy, the only streamer on the list who came to Twitch from Facebook rather than YouTube. He spent 980 hours on air throughout 2021, accumulated 4.98 million Hours Watched, and peaked at 26K spectators. These numbers were several times higher than Jackeyy's past results on Facebook.
Polish GTA 5 RP community Pisicela started streaming on Twitch in the summer of 2021 and made it to the list on sixth spot. In just a little more than six months the channel has managed to amass 4.56 million Hours Watched.
The channel PlayHard is placed seventh among the most watched newcomers in 2021. The Brazilian youtuber began streaming in March and gathered several thousand viewers from his very first broadcasts. PlayHard spent 1K hours on air, which resulted in 3.72 million Hours Watched for his channel.
German creator & GTA 5 RP enthusiast SpartaTheOriginal took eight spot. The owner of Immortal Roleplay server amassed 3.45 million Hours Watched in 2021 & 37K Peak Viewers.
American streamer Biotoxz_ and Japanese creator oniyadayo round out the top 10. Their channels collected 3.25 million & 3 million Hours Watched, respectively.
Top new Twitch categories in 2021
The most popular category, among those appearing on Twitch in 2021, is FIFA 22. The game was released in late September, and many critics named it the best football simulator ever. It took only a few months for FIFA 22 to accumulate 154.46 million Hours Watched. Meanwhile, the Average Viewers number at broadcasts was 54.87K and the Peak Viewers number was 515.34K.
Valheim (61.42 million Hours Watched) and Resident Evil Village (60.33 million Hours Watched) rank second and third in the top, respectively. It is worth mentioning that the survival simulator was released in February 2021, and the eighth installment of the iconic franchise was released in May. It was the gap in three months that caused the difference in a million Hours Watched. Resident Evil Village would have been in second place if it had been released earlier, but it bypasses Valheim in other metrics and is the leader of the rating in terms of Peak Viewers (658.79K) and the number of Peak channels (15.1K).
The top-five most watched new categories in 2021 on Twitch is rounded out by Diablo II: Resurrected and Call of Duty: Vanguard, both of which were released in September. Despite criticism from gamers dissatisfied with the initial quality of the projects, the games managed to amass 55.2 million and 45.96 million Hours Watched, respectively.
The developers of Halo Infinite fixed most of the game's graphical problems immediately after the community's negative reaction to the first trailer. By the time of the multiplayer release in August 2021, the game looked much better and impressed the gamers, getting a lot of positive feedback. The single-player campaign, which was released in December, only boosted the game's statistics. Perhaps because of this, Halo Infinite ranks six with 38.33 million Hours Watched.
Pokémon has always been popular, and 2021 was no exception. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Pokémon Unite, developed for the Nintendo Switch, take the next two spots on the top. The categories accumulated 36 million and 34.7 million Hours Watched, respectively.
In 9th place is the scandalous category Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches, which is especially popular thanks to girls in bathing suits. Amouranth is the most watched representative of the female streamers in this category with the result of 6.85 million Hours Watched. Interestingly, second place (3.37 million Hours Watched) is taken by the Marine Mammal Rescue channel, which streams almost around the clock.
It Takes Two, which was named Game of the Year 2021 by The Game Awards, rounds out the top ten most popular new categories on Twitch. The cooperative action-adventure game also won Best Family Game and Best Multiplayer Game awards. In 2021, the game managed to amass 29.82 million Hours Watched.
Other Twitch stats of 2021:
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In 2021, the time spent watching broadcasts on Twitch grew by about 30%. The service is becoming more and more popular, covering new regions. Particular growth in viewership and streamers’ activity was seen in Brazil and other countries in Latin America. The most popular category, Just Chatting, has consolidated its position in 2021, due to which Twitch is no longer just a platform for gaming.It is gradually becoming an all-encompassing platform.
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