December 2025 on Twitch was a month of holiday hype, record-breaking streams, and year-end awards ceremonies that drew millions of viewers. From epic StarLadder Bupadest Major matches to MontanaBlack’s festive Christmas event and standout personalities, the platform closed the year with a bang.
In December, Twitch streams generated over 1.44 billion Hours Watched, marking a 5% increase compared to November and the platform’s strongest performance since August. Average and peak concurrent viewership saw slight upticks in the final month of the year, though the growth remained marginal.
In contrast, the peak number of active channels fell by 28%. This drop was largely the result of an unusually high spike in November (+38%), which was caused by a major in-game event in Fortnite.
Among Twitch’s most popular categories, Counter-Strike and World of Warcraft stood out for their strong performances. Valve’s flagship shooter climbed four positions, driven by broadcasts of the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, the second Major tournament of the year.
Meanwhile, World of Warcraft saw an even bigger jump, rising five spots thanks to the German “Sauercrowd” hardcore streamer event. The event brought together major creators such as Kevin “Papaplatte” Teller, Maximilian “HandOfBlood” Knabe, Frederik “NoWay4u_sir” Hinteregger and several other high-profile streamers, giving Blizzard’s iconic MMORPG a significant boost in viewership.
There were no significant shifts in Twitch’s ranking of the most popular genres. RPG and Adventure posted the strongest growth, largely driven by a German World of Warcraft streamer event.
Meanwhile, the IRL genre experienced a 12% month-over-month increase in Hours Watched, driven by the numerous ceremonies and award shows held towards the end of the year.
TheBurntPeanut was the most-watched Twitch streamer in December 2025, generating nearly 8.8 million Hours Watched over the month, largely driven by his ARC Raiders streams. Thanks to his consistent coverage of the new shooter, TheBurntPeanut took home the Best FPS Streamer award at the Streamer Awards 2025. At the same ceremony, he also claimed the title of Best VTuber, cementing his standout performance of the year.
Read more: The Streamer Awards 2025 results: all nominations and winners
Two other streamers also surpassed 8 million Hours Watched in the final month of the year. Vadim “Evelone2004” Kozakov actively covered the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 and even set a new peak concurrent viewership record on his channel during one of the matches.
Tony “LVNDMARK” claimed third place in the monthly rankings, dedicating all of December to Escape from Tarkov streams, which featured Twitch Drops to celebrate the New Year event.
In December, the most popular Twitch streamer was Vyacheslav “buster” Leont'ev, who hit a record 758,000 peak viewers while broadcasting the year-end ceremony for Russian streamers.
Evelone and Max “shadowkekw” Pavlov also set new channel records, landing them in the top three of December’s rankings, thanks to their coverage of the Counter-Strike major.
Marcel “MontanaBlack88” Eris, the German streamer, also broke his channel record during The XXL Weihnachtsshow 3.0. At the end of December, he hosted a large-scale Christmas event that brought together German celebrities, YouTubers and other influencers. They took part in challenges, games and festive activities for viewers tuning in on Twitch and YouTube, creating a truly standout holiday broadcast.
The top 10 most popular Twitch channels in December were dominated by year-end ceremony broadcasts. The official The Game Awards channel attracted 347,000 concurrent viewers, while Blaire “QTCinderella” earned a spot with The Streamer Awards 2025. Antonia “RevedTV” Staab rounded out the top ten, thanks German Stream Awards 2025.
In December, the women’s Twitch streamer rankings saw no change at the top, with Emily “Emiru” Schunk firmly holding her position as the most popular. During the final month of the year, she entertained viewers with pre-holiday and Christmas-themed streams, as well as numerous collaborations with friends and fellow creators like Emily “ExtraEmily” Zhang, Brittany “Cinna” Watts and others.
QTCinderella secured second place, driven by The Streamer Awards 2025. Wendy “Wendolynortizz” Ortiz, who co-hosted the same ceremony, claimed fourth place in the rankings.
