Twitch, YouTube, & Facebook – Game Streaming Sites Viewership Dropping

Esports Industry

May 6, 2022

In recent years the world of game streaming has grown to be one of the most important parts of gaming and esports. There are multiple sites actively competing for your attention as game streaming has become one of the more popular forms of entertainment as a whole.

However, it seems like there might be a bit of a decline in numbers recently. According to a recent statistics report from streamlabs, viewing numbers for esports and game streaming across the board are down. All major platforms have reported a loss in game streaming sites viewership.

Streaming Sites Viewership Drop

The streaming sites these days go beyond just Twitch. We now also have YouTube and Facebook Gaming in the mix, although their popularity varies quite a bit. A recent report has shown that all platforms have seen a decrease in viewership over the last year. For year-on-year, streaming sites’ viewership has dropped as a whole in quarter 1 of 2022. Twitch has reported a minor rise compared to the last quarter, but not as much as is normally expected from Q4 to Q1. The drop elsewhere in viewership drops has made the entire industry decline despite a slight rise in Twitch.

While streaming site viewing numbers were down in general, they were still high. Over 8 billion hours were watched in Q1 2022, which is still impressive. Twitch is still seeing some growth, if smaller. On top of this, Just Chatting has continued to grow as the most-watched category on Twitch. Clearly, the site has power beyond just gaming or esports.

The figures point pretty directly to streaming sites viewership drop across the industry. The business as a whole has seen a dip in interaction and viewing hours for game streaming are down on the whole.

So, what exactly does this mean?

A lot of it comes down to context. The growth in streaming figures might not have been at a sustainable rate, and there are some wider changes in the world that could explain this drop.

Why are Streaming Sites Losing Viewers?

One way to look at these new figures is to consider the last few years as an outlier. The COVID-19 pandemic and other changes in recent years definitely had an impact on the amount of time people spend watching streaming. It’s possible that the growth in numbers over the last few years was mainly due to outside developments, rather than the platforms themselves. Compared to previous years, much of the world had severe restrictions on freedoms.

Nowadays, people have a lot more choice in entertainment and leisure.

Twitch itself saw some growth, and streaming site viewership dropping may have been held back by the other sites. The drop in Facebook Gaming figures probably won’t come as a shock to most. The platform has struggled to take off. Games streaming has expanded to multiple sites over the years, and it has recently looked like YouTube is gaining ground with big streamers moving over.

However, looking at performance it’s clear that in Twitch v YouTube there’s still one company that is quite a bit ahead. These numbers probably aren’t a huge cause for concern. A bit of drawback in viewing hours feels natural given outside changes will impact the time spent on streaming platforms lately. Although, these figures may be worth watching to ensure that this isn’t the start of a wider trend against games streaming.