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Gambling dethroned Warzone to enter the top 10 most-watched Twitch categories, as recorded in the State of the Stream for May 2022.
Gambling has been one of the most controversial categories on Twitch, with several high-profile streamers condemning top creators such as xQc, Trainwreck, and others. The criticism stems from creators spending massive amounts of money on gambling streams in front of thousands of viewers, including teens.
However, as one can already imagine, despite intense criticism and even a petition to ban gambling on the platform, the category has risen to new heights over the past couple of months. In fact, it managed to knock out many popular titles in the race to enter the top 10.
Slots enter the top 10 most-watched list on Twitch
Over the past couple of months, gambling streams have gained a lot of traction on the internet. Streamers including Pokimane, HasanAbi and Asmongold have blatantly criticised these streams and their impact on crypto websites.
That being said, it is a highly debated topic in the community, with the majority of Twitch streamers speaking against it. However, this hasn't stopped the controversial category from climbing up the charts.
Slots have been in the top 15 list for over two to three months at this point, but May marked the first instance of the meta entering the top 10 most-watched Twitch categories. Notably, it left the popular battle royale title CoD Warzone in the dust when it came to hours watched.
As per the data, in May 2022, slots managed to post over 39 million hours watched on the purple platform, which is six million more than Warzone. The notable gaming title was conclusively beaten as it sits at 33 million. With this in mind, the controversial category now stands ninth on the list, just behind DOTA 2 and Fortnite with over 48M and 51M hours watched respectively.
The top position was held comfortably by the 'Just Chatting' category with a supreme 271 million hours watched in May 2022, followed by League of Legends with 100 million.
Slot's success can partly be attributed to support from some high-profile accounts on the purple platform. Case in point, streaming powerhouse and popular philanthropist Trainwreck spent nearly 300 hours gambling on stream in May, majorly contributing to the skyrocketing popularity of the meta.
Notably, the streamer recently hit a massive $13.95 million jackpot as he played slots.
While it's something many known faces on the internet have condemned, gambling streams don't seem to be declining anytime soon in the future.
It will be quite interesting to see whether slots continue to rise in popularity on the Amazon-owned platform or other upcoming titles can dethrone the controversial category to blitz their way up the charts.
