YouTube gaming registers higher increase in watch hours than Twitch, Facebook in 2020 (Q3)

With gaming and streaming becoming more popular by the day worldwide, streaming services are cashing-in to their fullest. According to a report by Streamlabs and stream hatchet, viewers watched almost seven-and-a-half billion hours of content (7.46bn) globally across all streaming platforms in Q3 of 2020. This number increased by approximately 92 percent (91.8%) from the corresponding figures of 2019.

The biggest growth among all these streaming platforms was shown by YouTube Gaming, which grew by a staggering 156 million (10.5%) in hours of content watched, compared to the second quarter this year. YouTube Gaming also enjoyed tremendous success year-on-years, growing by a massive 132% compared to Q3 in the previous year.

This success can be put down to the worldwide lockdown during the last few months due to the coronavirus pandemic, forcing people to stay home and look online to enjoy new content. YouTube Gaming now holds around 22.5% of the market share in hours watched.

Facebook Gaming also reached the coveted milestone of one billion, in terms of the number of hours watched, for the first time in its history. The growth of Facebook Gaming, though not as meteoric as YouTube Gaming, is still tremendous.

After Mixer had to shut down, unfortunately, it struck up a partnership with Facebook Gaming. This meant that the latter gained around 30 million approximately (7.2% increase) in hours watched, compared to Q2.

The platform has also seen a humongous growth in hours watched year-on-year, growing by a whopping 297% in the third quarter this year as compared to 2019.

Twitch still lords over Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming

This is not to say Twitch hasn't dominated the market. Although the number of hours watched decreased by 377 million, the company managed to break the record for the number of hours streamed on the platform. This was partly due to streamers coming in after the shutdown of Mixer in Q3 of 2020.

Audiences on Twitch watched around 4.74 billion hours of content, a decrease of 8% from the second quarter, which witnessed 5.12 billion in hours watched. Twitch, however, still holds the edge over YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming, who were at 1.68 and 1.04 billion in hours watched in Q3, respectively.

Twitch grew by around 70% in terms of year-on-year growth compared to the third quarter in 2019. The platform currently holds 63.6% of the market share for hours watched, decreasing by 2.7% from the last quarter compared to Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming.