Everyone in the world desires a safe space to enjoy their time with like-minded individuals. And Twitch has managed to make this dream a possibility for a lot of people.
One of the biggest online communities is one that helps people find people they have things in common with.
Since its launch in 2011, Twitch has rapidly grown into one of the largest and most popular online communities for gamers and gaming enthusiasts. With an average of 15 million daily active users, it is currently the hub for live gaming content. However, it also gives room to other creative content such as music, art, and talk shows.
It even got that much more popular when with the work from home movement.
This article will tell you all about Twitch statistics for revenue and usage for the year 2023. Doing so will also demonstrate the importance of Twitch in the gaming, streaming, and entertainment industries as a whole.
Key Twitch Statistics
- 65% of Twitch viewers are male, whereas 35% are female
- There are 159 million unique users every month on Twitch, with 31 million using the platform daily
- Twitch users are most interested in music (68.3%), gaming (68.1%), and technology (67%)
- Twitch has fifty times as many unique channels as Facebook and ten times as many as YouTube
- There are around 2.73 million users on Twitch at any given time
- In 2021, Twitch’s top 1% earned more than half of all streamer earnings
Overview of Twitch
To understand why Twitch is in such a favorable position in the industry, we must look at its history and services.
History and Background
When it was founded in 2011, Twitch’s main goal was to create the perfect streaming platform for gamers.
Initially, Twitch only focused on video games, which meant that its current and average viewers were meager. Over time, they expanded into different niches, thereby increasing twitch viewership and concurrent viewers.
This expansion made Twitch’s stats very promising and demonstrated the company’s viability.
Shortly after, in 2014, Amazon purchased Twitch for nearly a billion dollars. With its growing average number of viewers, intense gaming events, and active channels, it has also become one of Amazon’s main sources of income.
This success also gives Amazon the incentive to maintain the market share of Twitch in the content creation and entertainment industries.
Services and Offerings
Twitch currently has various services and offerings for its concurrent viewers and content creators.
The most obvious one is live streaming in the gaming category. Another category with a high view count is the chatrooms, where viewers can have real-time discussions. Twitch also organizes unique events and tournaments, such as League of Legends tournaments for riot games.
Other than these entertainment-related offerings, another good addition is Twitch Prime. This subscription includes free games, in-game content, and other benefits. Twitch Prime is also one of the significant sources of revenue and a primary contributor to Twitch statistics.
Twitch’s Popularity
To dive deeper into key Twitch revenue stats, we first need to look at the large user base of Twitch streamers and Twitch viewers.
Monthly Active Twitch Users
As of 2021, an average viewer count of around 15 million has been maintained on Twitch. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many more people have turned to gaming and live streaming as their sources of entertainment.
Concurrent Viewers
The number of concurrent viewers in 2022 was 2.5 million. The total hours watched in 2022 were over 21 billion. Twitch also brings in thousands of great content creators who make channels in other areas, like music, art, and talk shows.
Active Streamers
Twitch also has over 9.9 million active streamers on its platform as of 2022. Hence, Twitch streamers and average viewers are the keys to the total revenue of the forum.
Demographics (Age Gender Locations)
Twitch users are mostly male-dominated in the gaming category. The age demographic is mostly adults ranging from 18 to 34 years of age. This age range comprises 67% of all Twitch viewers.
Geographical Split
The regional demographics are a lot more spread out all over the world. The single largest contributor to how many viewers Twitch has is the USA, at 20.5% of all viewers.
Other significant contributors are Germany, South Korea, Russia, and France at 6.5, 5.1, 4.7, and 4.2%, respectively.
Popular Categories
The most popular category on Twitch is “Just Chatting.” This category alone accounts for approximately 12% of total Twitch viewership. Just Chatting will have over 2.1 billion hours watched and over a quarter of a million viewers in 2022. League of Legends is in second place, which also happens to be the most-watched game on Twitch in 2022. This game alone was responsible for over 1.5 billion hours watched on Twitch.
Popular Games
Currently, the most-watched game on Twitch is DOTA 2, with GTA 5 coming in a close second. A newer addition is that of Valorant, which is also a top-rated game similar to CS:GO, another popular first-person shooter game.
Both Valorant and League of Legends originate from the same company, which is a huge partner of Twitch.
Twitch Statistics
First, let’s look at all the revenue sources responsible for Twitch’s growth.
Revenue Sources
Twitch generates revenue from various sources such as ads, subscriptions, their currency, and partnering with twitch partners such as Amazon, Microsoft, or Riot Games. Twitch also has its own currency called “bits,” which are used for tipping and supporting Twitch channels.
Revenue Split
Around 60% of the revenue comes from ads. The other 40% comes from subscriptions, donations, tips, and the hundreds of thousands of hours watched by unique viewers.
Revenue and Growth
Twitch is experiencing significant growth year over year. Twitch earned $275 million in revenue in 2016. This amount seemed like a lot at the time, but it pales compared to Twitch’s current generation. Despite generating $1 billion in revenue in 2020, Twitch made $2.6 billion during the COVID pandemic of 2019. Twitch achieved this by incentivizing concurrent live channels. Doing this increased twitch viewership and, ultimately, hours watched.
Twitch’s Partnerships and Sponsorships
Twitch forms partnerships and sponsorships with large companies and gaming companies to reach viewers in its gaming community. These sponsorships and partnerships enable twitch to organize large-scale events like twitch cons and tournaments, which benefit both its users and smaller streamers. Also, these partnerships will generate a lot of revenue through advertising and sponsorships.
Competitors
Twitch was one of the first companies to make live streaming common. However, now it has to compete in the market for its share.
Main Competitors
Some of the major competitors of Twitch in the live streaming scene are YouTube, Facebook Gaming, and Mixer.
In previous years, YouTube has been offering partnership programs to different streamers, incentivizing tens of thousands of them to switch over.
Some of the prominent names on YouTube for game streaming are Sykkuno and Ludwig. In future years, Twitch will need to keep innovating and improving to attract more users to its platform.
Comparison of Twitch With the Competition
Twitch is still leading the live-streaming industry. However, its competitors are also constantly improving and trying to capture market share. Twitch has a more extensive user base and an established reputation. On the other hand, platforms like YouTube and Facebook gaming make it much easier to connect with other social media platforms. This lets users take advantage of their existing social media presence.
The competition in the live-streaming industry is bound to increase since the number of viewers is so high. Ultimately, choosing between Twitch and one of its competitors will come down to personal preference and the specific needs of individual users.
Conclusion
You now have all of the necessary information about twitch stats and what they mean for the future of twitch. With the number of concurrent viewers on the platform increasing daily, Twitch is all set for another great year in 2023.
Major categories like just chatting have already attained over a million hours of viewing this year. These concurrent viewers and channels are proof of Twitch’s success.
So if you are a full-time live streamer, you have nothing to worry about; just keep making and consuming unique content on Twitch.
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Paul Martinez is the founder of EcomSidekick.com. He is an expert in the areas of finance, real estate, eCommerce, traffic and conversion.
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