With the end of the corona pandemic measures, the number of viewers in gaming on Twitch and Facebook Live fell: From January 2022 to April 2022, both streaming services, which specialize in gaming, constantly lost viewer hours. In May 2022, the services are now growing again for the first time: but with age-old games like League of Legends, CS:GO and DOTA 2. Twitch also has a new king: 38-year-old CS:GO streamer Gaules has xQc (26) off the throne pushed.
Where is the data from? The data comes from StreamElements: they analyze viewer hours watched on Twitch and Facebook Gaming.
Twitch shrinks from January to April 2022 – Now it’s growing again
Here’s what the numbers looked like: From January 2022 to April 2022, viewer hours on both services fell continuously. Especially on the much smaller Facebook Gaming, it was noticeable in the statistics when 300 million hours less were watched.
In May 2022, however, there was an increase again for the first time, albeit at a low level:
Esports with live audience boosts LoL, CS:GO and DOTA 2
What brought the turning point? Now in May 2022 no huge new games have come out that people are excitedly celebrating and watching for hours on Twitch. Instead, 3 old games in particular have increased significantly in the top on Twitch:
These are all e-sports titles that are benefiting from the fact that the corona easing is taking effect worldwide. Because now, for the first time in two years, large live events can be held on site and in front of an audience, which also attracts a lot of attention on Twitch.
Gambling is now more popular on Twitch than CoD: Warzone
What else is growing? Somewhat worrying is the news that “slots”, i.e. gambling, has also grown a lot and is now ahead of CoD Warzone.
Some of the biggest streamers in the US are fueling this trend, which appears to be fueled by sponsorships from major online casinos. The trend is viewed critically: It is suspected that streamers such as xQc or Trainwreck could serve as a bad example and tempt their viewers to gamble for money.
Viewers cheer when their streamers win unbelievably large sums on Twitch – or gamble away their fortune for hours and hours:
Apex Legends continues to work well for EA, here you can apparently compensate for the flop Battlefield 2042, which doesn’t play a role in Twitch.
Losers include Valorant, GTA5 and Fortnite. In addition, Just Chatting loses minimally, but at a very high level.
Behind the success of Twitch is Prime Gaming:
Prime Gaming, the secret behind Twitch’s success
xQc loses top spot on Twitch to Gaules – Despite “Johnny Depp”
Who is the big winner? In the so “poor gaming May 2022”, the streamers who had relied on the process of “Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard” such as xQc or Asmongold benefited. They tumble in as the 2nd and 3rd most watched streamers in the world.
Both streamers have been criticized for being partial and siding with actor Johnny Depp, while disparagingly commented on Amber Heard’s statements.
“Trainwreck” ((#5), gambling for millions of dollars on Twitch, should benefit from the rise of slots, while Tyler1 (#4) has been on a trip to Korea in LoL during that time. The trip worked for the Macho streamer disappointing, but he was seen with long streams and collected tons of viewer hours.
A German streamer, Eliasn97, is in 9th place among the 10 most watched Twitch streamers worldwide: We will report about him separately on MeinMMO.
However, despite Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp and much drama, xQc lost its place at the top of Twitch to Brazilian Gaules.
The 38-year-old Brazilian has benefited the most from the esports hype. He’s known for broadcasting big tournaments in CS:GO, apparently that’s what South America is into.
A 10-year-old shooter is huge on Twitch right now – Steam hit CS:GO has almost as many viewers as LoL