January 2024 was an extremely strong month for Twitch’s viewership. The purple live streaming platform increased its viewership across a myriad of metrics and recorded 1.923B Hours Watched. Not only does this figure represent a 7% increase in watch time compared to the previous month, but it was the highest watch time recorded in a single month on the platform in 17 months. Special events held in certain games and the return of the esports season to various titles were the leading causes of the increased viewership, and we will dive into all the nitty-gritty details below.
Looking at the platform as a whole, Twitch enjoyed growth throughout January across a wide variety of metrics, although not all. Twitch did record much lower Peak Channels and Peak Viewers than in December of 2023. Fortnite’s The Big Bang event in December contributed heavily to this, and January saw the title’s Peak Channels figure drop by 83%. However, excluding the Peak Viewers and Peak Channels figures which were influenced by this event, the platform enjoyed solid growth across the board.
Twitch’s 5.45M Active Channels is an unprecedented figure for the platform. Since we began tracking data for this metric in late 2019, we have never seen this figure reach so high. We can conclude that 5.45M Active Channels is a new platform record for Twitch. The Average Viewers figure of 2.62M also was the highest the platform has seen in almost two years. Twitch’s viewership was up across the board, and looking at the most-watched games/categories of the month, we can gain insight as to why.
Most Watched Games and Categories on Twitch, January 2024
Just Chatting remains the most popular category on Twitch, as it has been for a long time now. The category recorded 270.46M Hours Watched, marking a 2% increase from December of last year. Although this category did grow in watch time slightly, other games and categories enjoyed a much more significant boost.
Grand Theft Auto V recorded 11% more watch time this month than the previous one and accumulated 177.96M Hours Watched in total. The game continues to dominate Twitch, largely thanks to its role-playing servers where streamers adopt characters and improvise content. xQc and many other top streamers continued their RP content, although many other streamers with huge followings began to stream RP content much more.
League of Legends recorded 141.96M Hours Watched for January, moving up to 3rd in January’s rankings from 4th in the previous month. The game largely benefited from its esports season slowly beginning again. Regional leagues from around the globe began their first Split of the year, and streamers casting matches, as well as official broadcasting channels of the leagues themselves, contributed heavily to the increased watch time for January.
Escape from Tarkov ranked 4th with 81.11M Hours Watched, a monumental achievement for the game which did not even rank within the top 10 throughout December 2023. Escape from Tarkov hosted their yearly Christmas event which led into early January. The event brings Twitch Drops back to the game, which has been historically proven to drastically increase viewership for any title offering viewers the chance to earn in-game items. Escape from Tarkov: Arena was also released late last year, but this new PvP title has its own category available on Twitch.
In 5th place was Fortnite. The game was much higher in last month’s rankings thanks to The Big Bang event, and throughout Q4 Fortnite was hugely popular thanks to Season OG, which brought back many Fortnite streamers and created a lot of excitement for the title. Fortnite recorded 72.09M Hours Watched throughout the month, although this marked a 33% decrease in viewership. The game also recorded the highest Peak Channels metric of any category within this top 10 but also recorded a massive 83% drop compared to December.
Palworld ranked 6th in this ranking, after dominating Twitch entirely during periods of the month. The game from Japanese developer Pocketpair combines elements of various popular games, prompting streamers and others to compare the title to “Pokémon meets Fortnite”. It was released as early access on January 19, and was the single-most-watched game on Twitch for the first 3 days of its release. In total, Palword recorded 59.3M Hours Watched for January, but the game was also only released in the latter half of the month.
Read more about the release of Palworld and how it took over the live streaming community in our dedicated piece: Palworld’s jump to #1 Twitch game since early access release stuns community
Valorant, Counter-Strike, and Dota 2 ranked 7th, 8th, and 10th, respectively. All 3 of these titles enjoyed significant growth in their watch time in 2023, the most successful of which was Counter-Strike, which recorded a 43% higher Hours Watched metric this month. This growth coincided with the esports seasons of all 3 titles slowly starting up again. December was a dry month for all three disciplines, except for the BLAST Premier World Final 2023 in Counter-Strike and ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 in Dota 2.
Various Challenger series from around the world have begun in Valorant as the series begins to gear up for another year of competition after a long dry period since Valorant Champions 2023. Counter-Strike has hosted an array of smaller competitions and qualifiers, and the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024 contributed millions to the title's total watch time on Twitch. Dota 2 also hosted highly watched qualifiers for various tournaments.
Finally, in 9th place was Minecraft. The blocky game recorded 45.47M Hours Watched on Twitch and a significant portion of its growth was thanks to the Twitch Rivals: Hunt & Run event held in the latter half of the month. The event saw many of the top creators from the Spanish-speaking community generate millions of Hours Watched alongside other top-speaking creators from the Minecraft scene. You can read more about this Twitch Rivals event and its total viewership in our dedicated article: IlloJuan’s Hunt & Run Twitch Rivals event was the most popular Twitch Rivals event in almost a year.
Most Watched Twitch Channels, January 2024
Most watched and most popular Twitch Channels of January 2024, by Hours Watched and Peak Viewers
GamesDoneQuick was the most-watched Twitch channel of the month, thanks to its always popular Awesome Games Done Quick event. The channel recorded 10.2M Hours Watched thanks to the various speedruns hosted at the charity-orientated event. The most popular of these was the Silent Hill 2 speedrun completed by runner Ecdycis, which generated over 100K Peak Viewers.
Read more: Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 — Silent Hill 2 becomes most popular game of event
Fps_shaka came second in this ranking, although the streamer recorded a 23% drop in watch time with 9.85M Hours Watched accumulated. The Japanese community recently jumped onto the GTA V RP train, with a server featuring top creators from the community generating massive watch time for all involved. Although things are slowing down slightly for the viewership of this server, fps_shaka generated enough watch time to be the most-watched personal Twitch channel for January.
Gaules, the Brazilian Counter-Strike community caster and commentator, ranked 3rd with 9.60M Hours Watched. The Brazilian was hard at work covering events such as Major qualifiers, the ESL Pro League, and more. Gaules single-handedly contributes millions of HW to these esports events and is commonly one of the most-watched channels of the entire event. It recently came to light that Gaules would not be allowed to broadcast the upcoming PGL Major, which will be the first Counter-Strike 2 Major event.
Jynxzi ranked just outside the podium places with 8.91M Hours Watched. The streamer generated 60% more watch time in January than the previous month, despite also recording 15% lower Airtime for the same period. The streamer achieved this thanks to various special and collaborative events throughout the month, including with xQc. PRO users can browse his recent streams to their heart’s content, although users without a subscription can view a limited selection too.
Following Jynxzi was another hugely popular creator, KaiCenat. Kai generated 7.81M Hours Watched throughout the month, largely thanks to his huge following of over 8.85M Followers on Twitch. The American creator did not hold any special events or streams throughout the month that caused a wave of increased watch time, but rather simply streamed more and saw his watch time increase as a byproduct.
Eliasn97 came next with 7M Hours Watched recorded for the month. The German streamer was hard at work throughout the month, constantly streaming and hosting challenge streamers, special events, and collaborating with other creators. The German creator continues to stand at the forefront of the German-speaking DACH Twitch audience.
Loltyler1 finished in 7th with 6.6M Hours Watched. The American creator took a break from streaming towards the end of 2023, going live rarely and taking a step back from the platform. His break has reinvigorated him as he came back with 339 hours of Airtime recorded for the month, far more than he recorded throughout 2022. The American streamer enjoyed one of his most successful months for viewership in almost a year, broadcasting himself grinding League of Legends as well as enjoying some Chess from time to time.
Caseoh_, another American streamer, followed behind Tyler with 6.57M Hours Watched. The American streaming out of Arkansas streamed a variety of titles throughout the month and earned his watch time through consistently high viewership on an almost daily basis. Caseoh_ recorded an Average Viewers figure higher than many other top 10 creators on this ranking, even more than creators with double or triple his Followers on Twitch.
Spanish streamer ibai ranked 9th on this ranking with 6.47M Hours Watched. Ibai recorded one of the lowest Airtimes on this top 10, as the streamer has moved his focus to his endeavours in hosting special events and supporting his esports teams. Ibai’s most popular streams throughout the month were those where he supported his esports teams in competitions by hosting watch parties of the events and following their progress. Ibai was the most popular streamer of the month too, reaching 226K Peak Viewers for his coverage of his own team, MAD Lions KOI, in the LEC.
Last but not least, Japanese creator 加藤純一です (kato_junichi0817) garnered 6.39M Hours Watched thanks to his variety of streams. The 38-year-old creator received most of his watch time through his Street Fighter 6 streams, although he also covered many other games on his Twitch channel throughout January.
Most Watched Twitch Streamers, January 2024
Most watched and most popular Twitch streamers of January 2024, by Hours Watched and Peak Viewers
Moving on, here we have a ranking of the most-watched Twitch streamers of the month. The difference between Channel and Streamer in regards to these rankings is that Channel includes organisational channels owned by companies, such as the GamesDoneQuick channel, or broadcasting channels for various esports events and leagues.
With GamesDoneQuick dismissed, summit1g was able to snag 10th in this ranking with 6.17M Hours Watched. The American streamer who is mostly known for his Shooters gameplay mainly broadcasted Escape from Tarkov throughout January. With the help of the Christmas event and some Twitch Drops, summit managed to record a 40% higher HW figure in January compared to the previous period.
Most Watched Female Streamers, January 2024
Most watched and most popular female Twitch streamers of January 2023, by Hours Watched and Peak Viewers
Ironmouse was the most-watched female Twitch streamer of January 2024. The VTuber generated 1.69M Hours Watched and continues to grow her watch time. In 2023, ironmouse won Content Creator of the Year at the Gaming Awards and won every award she was nominated for at the VTuber Awards, including VTuber of the Year. She continues to dominate the VTuber and Twitch space and shows no signs of slowing down.
Gingy, another American Twitch streamer came 2nd with 1.45M Hours Watched. She earned a huge increase in both Peak Viewers and Hours Watched in January, largely thanks to her Drops-enabled Escape from Tarkov streams. In early January she set a new personal record for peak concurrent viewership with 59K Peak Viewers recorded for her Escape from Tarkov stream, making her also the most popular female Twitch streamer of the month. Her previous Peak Viewers personal record was held by the Escape from Tarkov Twitch Drops event in January 2022.
Finishing up the podium spots was Emiru with 1.39M Hours Watched. The American streamer recorded most of her watch time thanks to her Elden Ring playthrough, which she recently finished. The American streamer showed stable viewership across the board, not seeing any changes to her Hours Watched, Average Viewers, or Airtime figures compared to the previous month.
In 4th was streamer mira with 1.35M Hours Watched. The streamer was live nearly the entire month, streaming for over 697 hours throughout the month, or in other terms roughly 94% of January. Her Average Viewers figure was the lowest on this ranking, but she managed to rank highly in watch time thanks to her constant broadcasts.
Next up is Kyedae, the Canadian Valorant personality. Kyedae streamed the new Valorant Act on her Twitch channel and recorded 41% more Airtime this month than previously. In total, her streams generated 1.34M Hours Watched, entirely streaming Valorant throughout the month. She is easily the most popular female Valorant personality on Twitch, and her dedication to this audience earned her 5th on these rankings.
Two VTubers followed Kyedae, 烟花蹦蹦蹦 (hennie2001) of Taiwan and 赤見かるび (akamikarubi) of Japan. The Taiwanese VTuber generated 1.31M Hours Watched with a huge amount of Airtime, whereas the Japanese creator generated 1.26M Hours Watched with fewer hours live but a more consistent audience. Both of the VTubers broadcasted variety content throughout the month, hopping on hype trains such as the new Palworld game, as well as other currently viral games such as Lethal Company.
In 8th place on our rankings was fanfan, the Canadian streamer signed with TSM. Fanfan generated most of her 1.21M Hours Watched thanks to GTA V RP, especially her New Year’s Day stream which generated a vast amount of watch time.
Evaanna was another streamer who generated her watch time through constant streams. She was live for 564 hours in the month and generated 1.19M Hours Watched. Although she streamed less than mira and 烟花蹦蹦蹦, she recorded a similar Airtime to these streamers. When relying on large Airtime to ensure high watch time, the more hours the better, as proven by these three streamers who rank higher on this ranking as their Airtime increases.
Last but not least, HoneyPuu finishes off our rankings with 1.08M Hours Watched. HoneyPuu is truly the face of German female Twitch creators, ranking far higher than any other German-speaking streamer in this ranking. She earned 210% more Airtime in January than the previous month, largely thanks to her relatively short subathon which took place across a period just longer than a week. Shorter than many other subathons hosted on Twitch, but still an extremely long period to be live for. Her subathon streams became some of her most popular content on Twitch ever and helped to secure her spot on this ranking.
