Twitch Viewership Declines as Facebook Gaming Gains Momentum in June

The upward trend in hours watched on Twitch in May appears to have been a one-time occurrence, as the platform resumed its decline in June, according to the monthly State of the Stream report by StreamElements and Rainmaker.gg. In June, Twitch recorded 1.7 billion hours watched, a decrease of approximately 6% from the 1.81 billion hours watched in May. Having started the year with over 2 billion hours watched in January, Twitch's viewership has been consistently declining, with the exception of May's performance. Similarly, Facebook Gaming had experienced monthly declines since the beginning of the year but managed to halt the downward trend with a modest increase in May. In contrast to Twitch, Facebook Gaming achieved more substantial growth in June, with a 21% increase in hours watched, reaching 425 million. According to a StreamElements representative, the disparity in trends between the two platforms can be attributed to their differing areas of focus. While Twitch has traditionally concentrated on PC and console games, Facebook Gaming has placed greater emphasis on emerging markets. The report also included data on YouTube Gaming, which had 290 million hours of live gaming video watched in June. "The top 10 games on YouTube lean more towards mobile titles, and their VTuber creators have gained popularity more quickly. Meanwhile, although Twitch has not made any significant creator acquisitions recently, YouTube has maintained a steady pace of talent acquisition," said Jason Krebs, StreamElements' chief business officer.