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In the second quarter of 2024, the competition among streaming platforms remained intense. YouTube strengthened its position as the second most popular platform for gaming and esports broadcasts, while Twitch faced declining viewership. Kick expanded its influence in South America, attracting more local streamers, while AfreecaTV and CHZZK battled for the former Korean audience of Twitch.
YouTube Live achieved significant growth, totaling approximately 15.2 billion Hours Watched in Q2 2024, a 20.5% increase from the previous quarter. In contrast, Twitch experienced a decrease in overall viewership figures by 11.85%, accumulating 4.8 billion Hours Watched during the same period. Notably, YouTube Gaming made notable strides in narrowing the gap with Twitch in the gaming category.
Among other platforms, Kick sustained steady month-over-month growth, recording a 28% increase in HW compared to Q1. CHZZK also demonstrated promising growth, actively competing to replace Twitch in the South Korean market. However, platforms such as Trovo and Bigo LIVE witnessed a gradual decline in their audience.
Main takeaways:
In Q2 2024, Twitch experienced an 11.8% decrease in Hours Watched compared to Q1. The platform has returned to its average levels after a surge in streamer activity at the beginning of the year.
YouTube Live saw a notable 20.5% increase in HW during the same period. Moreover, the gap between YouTube Gaming's audience and Twitch's gaming segment significantly narrowed. If this trend continues, YouTube could potentially surpass Twitch as the leading gaming streaming platform by year-end.
Kick continued its impressive growth trajectory, increasing Hours Watched by 28%, with peak concurrent viewership exceeding one million in both May and June.
CHZZK is steadily closing the gap with AfreecaTV. In Q1, watch time difference between two platforms was about 127 million hours, which reduced to 88 million hours in Q2. CHZZK's momentum remains strong, growing by 39% in the quarter, compared to AfreecaTV's growth of less than 5%.
Bigo LIVE and Trovo continue to struggle, with their Hours Watched declining by 26% and 42% respectively. These platforms face stiff competition from more ambitious services like Kick.
Building upon AfreecaTV's foundation, a new international streaming platform, SOOP, has been launched, showing promising growth dynamics that already outpace Japan's Mildom.
YouTube Live viewer statistics in Q2 2024
Throughout the second quarter of 2024,YouTube Livemaintained consistent growth, driven by its top categories: Entertainment, News & Politics, and Gaming. In many regions, YouTube has supplanted traditional television as the primary source of information, a trend expected to intensify over time. Beyond conventional TV content, YouTube featured a wide array of entertainment and sports events in Q2, including theKings World Cup 2024media football tournament,Eurovision Song Contest 2024, and various chess tournaments.
The platform remains immensely popular in India, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. YouTube's appeal is further enhanced by many mobile operators not charging data fees for usage on the platform.
YouTube Gaming saw its viewership grow from 1.75 billion to nearly 2.4 billion Hours Watched. This increase was driven primarily by esports tournaments such as MPL for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and major events like VCT 2024: Masters Shanghai (Valorant) and the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 (League of Legends). Throughout the year, many tournament organizers and community casters increasingly turned their focus to YouTube.
Some shifts to YouTube were prompted by issues with Twitch in South Korea, where the LCK administration gradually reduced Twitch's broadcast share in favor of platforms like YouTube, CHZZK, and AfreecaTV.
The peak growth for YouTube Gaming occurred in May, driven largely by events like the Mid-Season Invitational 2024, MPL Indonesia Season 13, and MPL Philippines Season 13. Consequently, the most popular channels during this period were MPL Indonesia and LCK.
In addition to esports, YouTube Gaming has seen a rise in gambling streams from Southeast Asian streamers. There is significant interest in slot games from Indonesia and Thailand, though many of these streams get banned for viewbotting.
Twitch viewer statistics in Q2 2024
In the second quarter of 2024, Twitch's viewership declined from 5.5 billion to 4.8 billion Hours Watched, marking an approximate 11.8% decrease. Several factors contributed to this decline. Firstly, it followed a seasonal peak in January, traditionally robust due to numerous New Year events. In January 2024, Twitch achieved its highest monthly viewership in two years, totaling 1.92 billion Hours Watched.
Another factor could be attributed to Twitch's new multicasting rules, allowing content creators to stream simultaneously on external platforms. These rules took effect at the end of February and noticeably impacted Twitch's viewership in the second quarter, compared to a lesser effect in the first quarter.
With the advent of multicasting, many prominent Twitch streamers, particularly community casters like Gaules and Baiano, began broadcasting on multiple platforms such as YouTube, Kick, TikTok, and others. This shift means their audiences are no longer limited to Twitch. Likewise, tournament organizers adjusted their strategies in 2024 by bolstering their presence on YouTube, launching new broadcast channels, and promoting existing ones. For instance, YouTube's share during ESL Pro League Season 18 was under 20%, whereas it nearly reached 30% during ESL Pro League Season 19.
Kick viewer statistics in Q2 2024
Kickcontinues to show consistent audience growth. In the second quarter of 2024, the platform increased its watch time by 28%, driven significantly by streamers who covered matches from the Kings World Cup. For example, thesxbattracted over 690,700 Peak Viewers on Kick, setting records both for the tournament itself and for the streamer. Alongside sxb, other popular Kick streamers likewestcol,elraenn,slakun10, andelzeeinalso provided coverage of the football tournament.
It's noteworthy that Kick achieved its highest performance to date in terms of watch time, concurrent viewership, and streamer activity since the platform's launch. Read more about it here.
AfreecaTV viewer statistics in Q2 2024
In the second quarter of 2024,AfreecaTVsaw modest growth, although its pace slowed compared to the first quarter. With Twitch exiting South Korea, AfreecaTV attracted some new users; however, a significant portion of its audience shifted to YouTube and CHZZK. In June, AfreecaTV introduced a new streaming platform called SOOP, currently in the early stages of audience development.
The peak in watch time for AfreecaTV during the second quarter came in June, fueled by broadcasts of the LCK summer split. During the LCK Spring 2024 season, AfreecaTV accounted for 12.1% of the viewership, a figure that rose to nearly 16% by the time of this article's publication during the LCK Summer 2024 group stage.
SOOP viewer statistics in Q2 2024
SOOP, a new streaming platform presented by AfreecaTV, was launched in June 2024. In its inaugural month, SOOP garnered 1.4 million Hours Watched, surpassing half of Mildom's quarterly total. The platform primarily showcases gaming streams including popular titles such as League of Legends, Valorant, GTA V, and more.
Nimo TV viewer statistics in Q2 2024
In the second quarter of 2024, NimoTV's metrics surged by 83.8%, increasing from 179 million to 329 million Hours Watched. However, this growth was solely driven by a single event known as the 2024 NIMO GLOBAL GALA. This event honored NimoTV streamers, guilds, and partners, while also showcasing the latest developments in the gaming and entertainment industries.
Rumble viewer statistics in Q2 2024
In the second quarter of this year, Rumble generated approximately 127 million Hours Watched, marking an 8% decrease compared to its first quarter performance. Despite this decline, Rumble achieved a new peak viewer record with over 700,000 viewers tuning in for the live debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Political talk shows catering to the Republican Party audience in the USA and supporters of Donald Trump remain the most popular content on the platform. Among the entertainment offerings, the Kai N Speed Show featuring Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed, renowned streamers from Twitch and YouTube, stands out. For more details about this show, please refer toour featured article.
Naver's CHZZK viewer statistics in Q2 2024
After Twitch withdrew from South Korea, Naver's CHZZK became the preferred platform for many popular content creators from the country. In the first quarter, CHZZK accumulated 132 million Hours Watched, which increased by nearly 40% to 183.7 million Hours Watched in the second quarter. This impressive performance and growth trajectory highlight CHZZK's rising prominence as a competitor to AfreecaTV, with the gap between the platforms narrowing each month.
Trovo viewer statistics in Q2 2024
Trovo's performance continued to decline steadily into the second quarter of 2024. In the past three months, the platform generated only 15.4 million Hours Watched, marking a 42% decrease compared to the first quarter. This decline is partly attributed to fewer global updates from Trovo compared to its competitors. Previously, Trovo was a sanctuary for streamers who didn't find their niche on Twitch or YouTube for various reasons. However, Kick has now emerged as the primary competitor to these platforms.
Bigo LIVE viewer statistics in Q2 2024
Bigo LIVE is following a trend similar to Trovo, experiencing a decline in audience engagement with a 26% reduction in viewing hours in the second quarter compared to the first. The platform's primary viewership resides in Latin and South America, regions where Kick made notable advances in 2024 by actively luring away popular Spanish-speaking content creators from Bigo LIVE.
Mildom viewer statistics in Q2 2024
The Japanese platformMildomnearly matched its first-quarter performance, garnering approximately 2.6 million hours watched from April to June. It seems that the service has reached its peak audience and is unlikely to exceed this milestone in the near future.
