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Twitch viewership ended 2023 on a positive note with marginal gains according to StreamElements’ latest State of the Stream report. Rainmaker.gg’s data shows that December set 2023 records for total monthly viewership (1.790 billion hours) and daily average viewership (57.7 million hours). However, this data does exclude Q1 2023 data.
Over the last three quarters, Twitch has made marginal viewership gains. Q4 saw the highest total viewership with 5,290 billion hours watched. This is up 3% from Q3’s 5,154 billion hours watched over the same number of days. Q4’s 57.5 million average daily hours watched is also up 2% from Q2’s average of 56.5 million hours watched daily.
Top Twitch categories in December 2023
Twitch’s top categories remained relatively consistent in December. Many esports focused titles — League of Legends, Valorant and Counter-Strike — saw declines as events wound down for the holidays. World of Warcraft also saw 40% fewer hours watched for similar reasons as guilds competed in the Race to World First for a brand new raid.
Grand Theft Auto V saw major growth in December, with nearly 60% more hours watched than the prior month. This boost is likely due to Rockstar finally releasing a trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. As anticipation for the sequel outstrips all other upcoming games combined, it’s no wonder why viewers flocked back to GTA V. Notably, Japanese language streamers accounted for 35% of the game’s viewership.
Call of Duty: Warzone saw the most growth of any category in the top 10. Activision’s battle royale grew 349% month-on-month. Following the series’ traditional November release of Modern Warfare III, December 6 kicked off season one of Warzone to reflect the new game. The all-new Urzikstan map and community events from OpTic Gaming, FaZe Clan and erena helped boost viewership.
Top Twitch creators
December 2023 saw a new creator take the platform’s top spot. Japan’s fps_shaka has made the top 10 a number of times, but his 239 broadcast hours helped him claim the top spot.
Across December, fps_shaka spent nearly 75% of his stream playing Grand Theft Auto V. With over 11 million GTA V hours watched, fps_shaka accounted for 6.8% of the game’s monthly total or 20% of GTA V’s Japanese viewership.
However, the top 10 still saw a number of perennial favorites make the cut. IlloJuan, KaiCenat, Gaules, Kato_junichi0817, Asmongold (A.K.A. Zackrawrr), Jynxzi, xQc, and ibai have all made the top 10 previously in 2023. Raderaderader is the only new streamer to make the top 10 in December.
Notably, Twitch lifted restrictions on simulcasting content in October and top streamers are increasingly exploring alternative platforms.
“One notable takeaway is that streaming cutbacks from top talent who now share time on other platforms did not significantly impact viewership,” said Or Perry, cofounder of StreamElements. “This has also opened the door for other stars to take the throne, such as Japan’s fps_shaka landing top streamer for the first time. One avenue for Twitch to accelerate its growth is to encourage its creators to multi-stream, given the existing broader gaming audience.”
While Twitch hasn’t lost viewership, there is trouble internally. The Amazon-owned platform kicked off 2024 by laying off 35% of its employees. Combined with two other rounds of layoffs in 2023, Twitch has lost roughly half of its workforce.
If viewership remains relatively constant, cutting headcount and other costs could help the company get closer to profitability. However, the chaos of these cuts (and inconsistent enforcement policies) pave a challenging road for Twitch in 2024.
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