Twitch stats reveal interesting facts about how millions of users showcase their gaming skills, live coding, cooking shows, dancing, sports, arts, and entertainment every day.
I feel Twitch is one of the wildest and weirdest social platforms of the millennium. Twitch had 2.6 million concurrent viewers in January 2024,[1] making it important for marketers and businesses to capture new markets, grow sales, and increase brand awareness. To help you with that, we have analyzed platform usage from various trustworthy sources and are sharing the interesting findings with you.
A summary of Twitch statistics:
- 70% of users choose Twitch as a live streaming app
- 1.96 billion hours watched live on Twitch
- 74% of users are watching live game streaming in the US
- US hosts 36.32% of all Twitch Users
- 66, 872 Twitch partners as of February 2024
- 70% of Twitch users aged between 18-34 years
- 11.99 million Twitch app installs in 2023 Q2
- League of Legends leads Twitch with 60.52B views, the all-time favorite
- 3.1B hours on Just Chatting rank it #1 in non-gaming content
- Ibai hit 3.44M concurrent viewers, topping Twitch channels
- 11.79 million permanent and 2.55 million temporary channel bans
Daily Active Users
Highest share of daily active users among all live streaming apps
Twitch single-handedly rules the live streaming space, with over 70% of users choosing it over other such platforms, including Bigo Live, Nimo TV, Omlet, etc. [2]
Besides, it has a constantly increasing user base, with no sign of slowdown in the near future.
This is attributed to the ever-expanding community in just about every domain. However, gaming live streams are still its primary strength, accounting for the majority of the “Hours Watched, ” as indicated by Streams Charts. [3]
Still, “Just Chatting” (IRL) tops the charts, signaling anything can work on Twitch if you just have the right content.
Live Hours Watched
1.96 Billion Hours Watched Live in January 2024
The latest data from Twitch Tracker [4] depicts the platform’s live streaming success, with 1.96 billion hours watched live in January 2024. Those are impressively big numbers, and the charts show the COVID-19 pandemic helped Twitch achieve this feat.
Lockdown isolation turned the people to their screens, many of whom live-streamed (mostly their gaming sessions), helping Twitch become the social media platform for the Gen-Z.
Revenue
Twitch made $2 billion in 2020
Twitch’s revenue isn’t clear since Amazon, its parent company, does not publish the exact numbers about this platform specifically. Still, market research company Nielsen estimated Twitch’s share to be 22% (roughly $2 billion) of the net $9.3 billion brought by all video content streaming platforms in 2020. [5]
Among the streamers, Ninja claimed the top spot with $5.42 million in earnings in 2023. [6]
Twitch’s Acquisition
Amazon acquired Twitch in 2014 for $970 million
This all started with the launch of Justin.tv in 2007, which live-streamed its founder’s life. Its users requested features to “life-cast” themselves, giving birth to Twitch.tv.
Out of all the categories offered initially, gaming grew best, making it the company’s primary focus.
Google made the first move to make Twitch its own with a $1 billion offer in 2014. However, Google pulled out later, fearing potential anti-trust litigation because of its existing YouTube ownership.
Finally, Amazon clinched the opportunity by buying Twitch with an all-cash $970 million deal in August 2014. [7]
Popular Twitch Category
Games were the most watched Twitch category in the US as of October 2022
Games are still the biggest entertainer for the US live-streaming audience, with 74% of users watching them. Nevertheless, other categories, such as music and esports, are catching fast.
In the gaming category, Grand Theft Auto V was the frontrunner, followed by League of Legends. Fortnite and Counter-Strike took the third and fourth spots, respectively.
Country with the Most Users
The US hosts 36.32% of all Twitch Users
The US leads the global stage with a 93 million Twitch user base, more than the next five countries combined.
Following a similar trend, the US sends 20.36% of desktop traffic to Twitch.tv. [8] The next four countries with the highest desktop traffic are Germany, Russia, the Korean Republic, and France.
Twitch Partners
66,872 Twitch Partners as of February 2024
Twitch Partners are the streamers who qualify the platform’s “Path to Partner” criteria. This tier offers an upgrade to their affiliate program, with better monetization options, such as revenue from channel subscriptions.
The latest data from StreamCharts indicates that there are 66, 872 Twitch Partners as of February 2024. [9]
Twitch User’s Age Demographics
Over 70% of Twitch users are aged between 18 and 34
Age demographics is a very important metric for advertisers. Twitch Advertising[10] reveals majority (>70%) of its users fall within the 18-34 age group.
Twitch users in the US follow a similar pattern, as shown by the chart below.
Twitch Smartphone Presence
11.99 million Twitch app installs in 2023 Q2
The positive effect of COVID-19 on Twitch app installs is clearly visible. Though the installs have plateaued from 2021 onwards, there are still a good 11.99 million downloads in the second quarter of 2023.
Most Popular Twitch Games
League of Legends is the all time popular game on Twitch as of December 2023
League of Legends takes the top spot for all-time global views (as of December 2023) at 60.52 billion, followed by Grand Theft Auto V and Fortnite.
But the story is slightly different when it comes to the number of followers, with Fortnite leading the race:
Overall, the most consistent games across both categories would be Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto V.
Twitch for Non-gaming Content
Just Chatting (IRL) is the most in-demand non-gaming content
Just Chatting, followed by Slots and Music, is the most watched non-gaming content on Twitch.
For the US alone, Twitch users preferred music, esports, and live sports as their favorite non-gaming Twitch streams as of October 2022.
Popular Twitch Channels
Ibai, Jynzxi, and Ninja topped the Twitch charts for all-time concurrent viewers, no. of average viewers, and no. of followers, respectively
Ibai is the most popular Twitch channel by peak all-time concurrent viewers as of October 2023.
However, Jynzxi, KaiCenat, auronplay take the top three spots based on the number of average viewers, as per TwitchTracker. [11]
And Ninja is the most followed Twitch streamer, according to TwitchMetrics. [12]
Twitch Content Moderation
11.79 million permanent channel bans and over 2.55 million temporary bans as of the second half of 2022
The 2022 H2 was particularly rough for Twitch streamers in terms of channel bans as they imposed 11.8 million bans on their audience. However, Timeout bans are declining gradually, as indicated below:
Channel ban prevents a specific viewer from commenting, viewing, or appearing in the chatters list until the ban is lifted. Such bans also remove the viewer from the followers list and prohibit re-following during the ban. Timeouts, on the other hand, are time-based bans in which the channel moderator can push a viewer to take time off, with the default limit being 10 min.
Likewise, in H2 2022, 79.5% of live streamers had the AutoMod feature turned on to actively monitor chat spam. In the same period, 83.2% of channels had one active moderator. [13]
Twitch’s AutoMod removed 77.08 million harmful messages in the second half of 2022. Still, 19.74 million removals had someone doing it manually in the same period.
Here are the trends for the number of enforcement actions (warning, temporary, or permanent ban) taken on user-reported behavior violations.
Twitch it!
Millions of people flock to Twitch to watch their favorite content creators, making it the king of all live-streaming platforms. Though it’s facing some competition from YouTube, it’s comfortably safe as of now.
We hope the above numbers give you a much-needed peek inside Twitch, allowing you to see what actually happens and whether you should care at all.
Data Source References
- Twitch concurrent viewers by month since 2014
- Global live streaming app market share by daily users (Q1 2020 – Q1 2022)
- Top games and categories on Twitch in the past week
- Twitch time statistics by month
- The Future of Gaming (Nielsen)
- How much do Twitch streamers make?
- Twitch acquisition
- Desktop traffic to Twitch.tv by country as of December 2023
- No. of Twitch partners and affiliates by month
- Twitch User’s Age Demographics
- Top Twitch streamers ranked on various factors
- The most followed Twitch streamers
- Twitch global content moderation coverage status in the H2 2022