Five Key Insights into Twitch and YouTube Gaming and the 2.4Bn Viewing Hours They Generated in Q1 2018
Game streaming is showing the world the future of entertainment: a world of engaging content created, curated, and commented on by communities and individual consumers. The combination of video and interactive game content satisfies both the desire for a lean-back and a lean-forward experience around people’s favorite entertainment IP. Esports adds a professional competitive layer, closing the circle of all-around entertainment, with heroes to admire and live events to look forward to and attend.
Naturally, brands see an opportunity to tap into this pastime and engage with the Generation Z and Millennial audience. One of the choices they face is whether to engage through professional esports content or to include their messaging in consumers’ personal game streams. Selecting the platform is another challenge. Comparing the two biggest game streaming platforms in the West, Twitch and YouTube Gaming, differences surface that can help brand engagement strategies.
Newzoo recently launched its Game Streaming Tracker service, which uses machine-learning algorithms to classify channels and generate deep insights into the streaming market, such as the performance of professional esports content only. Using this service, we investigated some key insights into and differences between Twitch and YouTube Gaming. Five takeaways are highlighted below.
1. ESPORTS CONTENT GENERATED 11% OF ALL VIEWERSHIP HOURS ON TWITCH AND YOUTUBE GAMING IN Q1
Twitch and YouTube Gaming generated 2.0 billion and 0.4 billion viewing hours, respectively, in the first quarter of 2018. Of those hours, 11.6% (Twitch) and 8.2% (YouTube Gaming) were generated by broadcasts of professional esports events and leagues. In terms of professional esports content, Twitch has the strongest position, with eight times the amount of viewing hours as YouTube Gaming. The share of esports hours varies between 7% and 20% for individual months depending on the number of professional games being broadcast.
2. CASUAL AND MOBILE TITLES ARE MORE POPULAR ON YOUTUBE GAMING
There are five mobile titles in the top 20 most watched games by viewing hours on YouTube Gaming: Mobile Legends, Clash Royale, Arena of Valor, Garena RoV, and Monster Strike. Twitch, on the other hand, has no mobile titles in its top 20. More casually oriented genres, such as casino, strategy, and simulation games, also represent a larger share of viewing hours on YouTube Gaming than on Twitch, where card, (MMO)RPG, and fighting games prove more popular.
3. TWITCH TAKES MOST OF THE VIEWERSHIP HOURS FOR THE TOP STREAMING TITLES
Across the combined top 20 games on Twitch and YouTube Gaming, Twitch accounted for 82% of the total viewership hours in Q1. For almost all the top 20 games, Twitch had the most viewers. Four notable exceptions to this are Casino Games, World of Tanks, Minecraft, and Mobile Legends, which performed better on YouTube Gaming.
4. TWITCH HAS A LONGER TAIL OF TOP CHANNELS AND GENRES
The top 10 channels on YouTube Gaming accounted for 18% of its viewership hours in Q1, with the top 100 channels taking 42% of all viewing hours. On Twitch, by comparison, the top 100 games accounted for just one-third of total viewing hours. Twitch also shows more variation within the top performing genes. Action/adventure, MOBA, and shooter games (the most popular genres on both platforms) take 69% of viewership on YouTube Gaming and only 61% on Twitch.
These differences can be partly attributed to the number of content creators on Twitch compared to YouTube Gaming. In Q1 2018, Twitch had approximately 65,000 channels that reached 50 or more concurrent viewers at least once. YouTube Gaming had 25,000 channels with a similar viewer base.
5. STREAMERS ON TWITCH AND YOUTUBE ARE EQUALLY POPULAR FOR SOME TOP GAMES
The five biggest personal streamers on Twitch had an average of 35,400 viewers compared to 12,416 on YouTube Gaming. However, when looking at games that are popular on both platforms, it’s clear that YouTube Gaming is performing just as well as and sometimes better than Twitch. Minecraft and FIFA 18, for example, are very popular with viewers on both platforms. The top three channels for Minecraft and seven of the 10 largest channels for FIFA 18, based on average concurrent viewers, are found on YouTube Gaming.
Rocket League is the #7 most watched esports title on Twitch in March
Starting this month, we have also updated our monthly Most Watched Games on Twitch ranking to include YouTube Gaming. You can find a brief review of what happened in March below.
In March, League of Legends took the #1 spot in the Top 10 Games by Esports hours Watched on both Twitch and YouTube Gaming. On Twitch, Overwatch rose two spots to take #2 with 17.9 million esports hours watched. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gained three positions to #3 on YouTube Gaming with 1.0 million esports hours. Dota 2 completed the top three on both platforms. Rocket League entered the top 10 on Twitch with the RLCS’s fifth season renewing the game’s esports scene in March.
Fortnite overtook League of Legends for #1 in March’s Top 10 Games on Twitch by Total Hours Watched. The game also rose to #1 on YouTube Gaming, with February’s top title Casino Games falling out of the ranking completely. Sea of Thieves gained 19 spots on Twitch’s ranking after its release in February. On YouTube Gaming, mobile games Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Clash Royale both rose three places to take #6 and #9, respectively. This again shows the strong presence of mobile gaming content on YouTube Gaming.
Original post here.
