Twitch Sees 5% Decline in Viewing Hours for March

According to StreamElements' State of the Stream report for March, which analyzed data from Rainmaker.gg, Twitch experienced a 5% decrease in hours watched during the month, following a decline of 8% in February. The total hours watched on the platform in March reached 1.56 billion. Despite the downturn in February and March, the first quarter of 2023 saw a less than 1% decrease in total hours watched compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. StreamElements CEO and co-founder Gil Hirsch commented, "In the first quarter of 2023, Twitch demonstrated its capacity to maintain relatively stable viewership compared to the previous quarter, as it continues to seek the next catalyst for growth." Hirsch also drew a comparison between the first quarter of 2023 and the pre-pandemic first quarter of 2019, highlighting a nearly 95% increase in hours watched. The March numbers received a significant boost from the Diablo 4 open beta, which, despite only running from March 24 to 27, garnered enough streams to secure a spot among the most popular Twitch categories for the month, with 28 million hours watched, narrowly surpassing Resident Evil 4's 27.6 million hours.