Twitch has historically started 2024, securing the highest count of viewership hours seen on the platform since COVID-19. In a recent report co-published between StreamElements and RainMaker.gg, it was revealed that Twitch recorded 1.9 billion watch hours through January. Daily, there were more than 61 million hours logged – which marked the fifth consecutive month of growth since September 2023. It’s a testament to the staying power of Twitch, which continues to grow despite intense competition and controversies.

There were several key players outlined as being serious growth markers in January. For instance, it was noted that Palworld’s launch was a huge contributor to the sizeable record secured by Twitch last month. The open-world survival game that has been dubbed ‘Pokémon with Guns’ sold more than ten million copies in a single week, taking almost every associated platform by storm.

Continued Growth

Twitch is feeling the pressure to grow, especially given the rise of Kick in recent months. Despite being a hugely controversial brand, Kick continues to follow Twitch around like a lost puppy, refusing to leave and constantly biting at the ankles of the titanic streaming platform. In recent days, it was revealed that Kick.com is entering the esports space, with the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen being streamed on the platform for the first time. There’s nothing quite like competition to drive innovation, though.

In the report published by StreamElements, it was shown that the top categories on Twitch in January 2024 were:

Just Chatting – 271m
Grand Theft Auto – 179m
League of Legends – 101m
Escape from Tarkov – 82m
Fortnite – 66m

Thanks to a healthy esports ecosystem and ‘drops’ campaigns that boost engagement, Twitch remains on top – and likely will for some time. In January, the likes of Escape from Tarkov saw monumental performance thanks to these campaigns. It was noted that Escape from Tarkov had a huge jump month-on-month, climbing by 180% thanks to a special event in the game. It was a huge campaign that saw viewers logging in to watch Tarkov streams for up to nine hours a day – and the numbers quickly ramped up.

In a statement, the co-founder of StreamElements, Or Perry, said:

‘It’s promising to see Twitch achieving a new peak with five consecutive months of growth in daily hours watched. However, it is too soon to know if the broader gaming audience is finally embracing the platform, as January always attracts more viewers than December. With more creators embracing multi-streaming, such as Pokimane going platform-agnostic, it is only a matter of time before the positive impact of pulling in more viewers from different apps is felt on Twitch.’

Over time, the statistics have shown a huge paradigm shift. On Twitch, we’re fast seeing a trend that’s seeing the number of streams overtaking the number of viewers. Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the number of viewers and streamers has been consistently high, but can we expect a global drop-off in viewers as time goes on?

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