The presidential race in the U.S. is in full swing — less than two weeks to go until the pivotal 2024 elections, which will significantly shape global geopolitics for the next five years. A fierce battle is underway between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, and both candidates are seizing every opportunity to win over as many voters as possible, including tapping into the livestreaming industry.
Even if you haven't been closely following the elections, you’ve probably heard various news updates: candidate debates, scandalous statements from their aides, celebrity endorsements, and even TikTok memes. All of this has become a crucial part of the current campaign. This year, streaming platforms are playing a major role, with Harris and Trump leveraging them to connect with younger audiences who could ultimately decide the election outcome.
Trump and Biden debate / Photo: John Bazemore/Copyright 2024 The AP
The pre-election media race in livestreaming kicked off with the June debates between Donald Trump and the sitting U.S. President Joe Biden, who was then seeking a second term as the Democratic candidate. This broadcast stood out for the participants' mutual accusations and Biden's hesitant performance, which ultimately contributed to his replacement by Kamala Harris.
From a viewer statistics perspective, the Trump-Biden debates set a new audience record on Rumble. Many top streamers on the platform covered the candidates' performances, and at its peak, viewership on Rumble during the debates surpassed 700,000.
Trump and Adin Ross / Photo: kick.com/adinross
While the Democratic Party was regrouping after the disappointing first debates and crafting a new campaign strategy around Kamala Harris, Donald Trump made a strong return to livestreaming. In early August, he joined popular American streamer Adin Ross for a joint stream on Kick. Their broadcast peaked at 583,600 viewers, making it one of the most-watched streams in Kick's history. Canadian streamer xQc even made a brief cameo during the show.
Interestingly, shortly after Trump’s stream with Adin Ross, rumors surfaced that Harris's team wanted to arrange a joint stream with Kai Cenat, but he reportedly declined the idea.
Trump and Harris debate / Photo: abcnews.go.com
After the change in the Democratic candidate, the second debates took place, with Kamala Harris — sitting Vice President under Joe Biden — going head-to-head with Trump. These debates became a hot topic not just in the media and on various news channels, but also in the livestreaming world. Over 3,500 channels on YouTube, Rumble, Kick, and other platforms streamed the event live. The average viewership during the debates reached 6.7 million, peaking at over 7.9 million viewers — an impressive result that surpassed major events like the latest Apple Event.
Beyond the typical viewership stats, Streams Charts also analyzed how often the candidates were mentioned in Twitch chats. The data revealed that, on average, viewers on the platform talked about Trump twice as much as they did about Harris.
Chat activity analysis can be a valuable tool for gauging audience reactions to events, including during the election campaign. Recently, Streams Charts launched a dedicated page that shows the current number of mentions of Trump and Harris in Twitch chats. It also provides context for those messages and tracks mention trends over the past six months.
The graph indicates that the latest peak in mentions of Trump and Harris occurred on September 11, the day of their debates. There was also a small spike on October 23 during Harris's press conference at CNN Town Hall, where she met with journalists instead of participating in the canceled second debates with Trump. Currently, both candidates are mentioned at the same ratio — Trump is discussed twice as often, though, as noted, it’s not always in a positive context.
Another political figure making waves in livestreaming recently is Bernie Sanders, the U.S. Senator from Vermont. On October 22, he joined forces with Pokimane, Valkyrae, and several other Twitch and YouTube streamers for a joint stream, where he answered questions about politics and encouraged young people to support Harris in the upcoming elections. The stream was brief but quite informative, attracting over 40,000 viewers at its peak.
The upcoming elections in the U.S. are increasingly making waves in the livestreaming industry. This is evident not only from the broadcasts of the debates and the analysis of candidate mentions in chats but also from the surge in the News & Politics category — it's now the most popular section on YouTube in terms of watch hours, confidently surpassing Entertainment, Gaming, and Music.
It's important to note that it’s not just the U.S. elections attracting large audiences on streaming platforms — similar viewer engagement has been seen during elections in India and Brazil. YouTube, Kick, Rumble, Twitch, and other services are gradually becoming a new battleground for candidates, much like television, radio, and social media.
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