At the beginning of summer 2023, the streaming industry experienced several major events: announcements of new rules and partnership programs, premieres of hyped entertainment shows, and of course, top streamers switching from one platform to another. Streams Charts has analyzed how these events influenced the popularity of platforms in terms of the daily dynamics of active channels.
In this article, compare the daily charts of Twitch, YouTube, Kick, and Rumble — these are very different platforms in terms of content and audience reach, but they do share some common features.
As can be seen from the charts, the number of active channels varies throughout the week, and it increases closer to the weekends. This is logical because people tend to take a break from their studies/work on weekends and have more opportunities to start streaming. This activity graph is wave-like and repeats from week to week. This can be particularly well observed in the Twitch curve: there are significantly more active channels and less likelihood that major events will affect the graph in one way or another.
In early June, there was a major scandal on Twitch: the platform unexpectedly announced strict restrictions for advertising during broadcasts, which did not sit well with top content creators. Some of them openly stated that if the rules were implemented, they would be forced to leave Twitch for another platform. Fortunately for them, Twitch administrators listened to the opinions and did not implement the new restrictions.
The drama with the new advertising rules on Twitch lasted only two days (June 6-7), and as can be seen from the chart, it had absolutely no impact on the number of active channels on the platform. On the one hand, it was a very short period of time, and on the other hand, Twitch itself is too big of a platform to be significantly affected by any specific news event. However, there was a significant increase in the number of active channels on Kick during the same two days — from 1.9K to 2.3K channels, or +25%. It's possible that some Twitch streamers were starting to consider the new platform as an alternative option.
The announcement of Twitch's new Partner Plus program also had no impact on the number of active channels on the platform. However, what truly had an effect was the release of Diablo IV. The title was released in early access in early June, and during that time, there was a significant increase in the number of active channels on Twitch.
Read more: Diablo IV doubles Hogwarts: Legacy viewership in its first-month on Twitch
YouTube Gaming has significantly fewer active channels compared to Twitch, but the dynamics are similar. The announcement of early access to the YouTube Partner Program had no impact on the situation, nor did an article in the Wall Street Journal revealing YouTube's intentions to enter the online gaming market with its own product.
The most interesting dynamics in the early summer were shown by Kick. On June 16, xQc, the most popular Twitch streamer, joined the platform. The next day, Amouranth, one of the most popular Twitch female streamers, started streaming on Kick. These two high-profile switches were accompanied by rumors that Kick was willing to pay top streamers tens of millions of dollars to start streaming on their new platform. During those days, many Twitch and other platform streamers decided to register accounts on Kick, and in terms of the number of active channels, the platform even surpassed YouTube Gaming.
Rumble significantly lags behind other platforms in terms of the number of active channels, but the difference in audience reach is less significant. Moreover, some broadcasts on Rumble attract a truly massive audience. For example, TateSpeech by Andrew Tate on June 14 was watched by 433K Peak Viewers, and The Kai 'N Speed Show had 308K PV. Even Kick has not achieved such numbers yet.
In conclusion, it can be said that the immense popularity of Twitch makes it the most resilient platform among all competitors when it comes to various external stress factors. The announcement of new advertising restrictions and the departure of top streamers had virtually no impact on Twitch and the number of active channels. The situation is different for Kick and YouTube Gaming — these platforms have fewer active channels and are slightly more susceptible to external influences. This can be clearly seen on the Kick chart, which saw significant growth after the transition of xQc and Amouranth.
