YouTube Sees Significant Uptick in Game Streaming Viewership for September

Last month, YouTube witnessed a substantial surge in gaming viewership. According to the monthly State of the Stream report released by StreamElements, the hours watched for live streaming game content on the platform jumped 42% to 434 million. In contrast, other streaming services did not fare as well. Twitch saw a dip in hours watched from 1.87 billion to 1.8 billion, while Facebook Gaming experienced an 18% decline month-over-month, finishing September with 328 million hours watched. Facebook has been losing viewers throughout the year, having peaked in January with over 600 million hours watched and declining almost every month since then. StreamElements started including YouTube in its report in June, when it posted 290 million hours of live gaming content watched, and this number has grown each month since. It's worth noting that StreamElements switched its analytics partner for the September report from Rainmaker.gg to Streams Charts. The September report also provided insight into YouTube's non-gaming efforts, with total live content hours watched on the site reaching 2.7 billion. Additionally, it included data on the performance of various international platforms. NimoTV's streamers attracted 186 million hours watched in September, while Afreeca's streamers drew 109 million hours of gaming viewership. The next tier of services included Bigo, with 46 million hours watched, Trovo, with 18 million hours watched, and Nonolive, with 9.9 million hours watched. Following publication, a Stream Elements representative clarified that the change in analytics partner affected month-over-month comparisons, as Streams Charts reported a decline in YouTube Gaming hours watched in September compared to August. The representative explained that 'analytic sites track hours watched at different times during any given minute, so peaks and valleys can make results vary.' Despite these variations, most results are consistent in terms of whether a platform rose or dropped in overall hours watched. Stream Elements is expected to resume working with its previous analytics partner for future reports.