Live Streaming Viewership Sees a 12% Increase in 2024

According to analytics firm Stream Hatchet, live-streaming platforms amassed 32.5 billion watch hours in 2024, up 12% from 2023.

This is the first rise in viewership for live-streaming since 2021. According to Stream Hatchet’s 2024 Live Streaming Trends Report, last year’s watch hours were double the amount recorded in 2019, showing how fast the industry has grown of late.

In 2024, Twitch still dominated with 61.1% of all watch hours, but YouTube Gaming and Kick gained ground, with 22.9% and 5.7% market shares, respectively. Both are increasingly influential, helping to create a more diverse live-streaming landscape.

Meanwhile, with Twitch’s pullout from South Korea in 2023, local alternatives emerged. Sites such as SOOP Korea, which had 3.4%, and Chzzk, at 2%, capitalized on the gap left and attracted considerable audiences. This is a trend indicating that viewers are able to adjust to regional changes in the streaming industry.

Regulatory changes also have their toll on the market. The temporary ban of TikTok in the US raised conversations about the future of digital content platforms. Indeed, the report predicts that more regional services will emerge as a way to bypass geopolitical and legal challenges.

Gaming content remained one of the biggest drivers of viewership. Grand Theft Auto V was number one with 2 billion watch hours, League of Legends was second place with 1.9 billion hours, andVALORANT had 1.1 billion.

The release of Counter-Strike 2 also saw interest in the game surge to its highest ever year-on-year rise in viewership.

Overall, 2024 was a year of transformation for the live-streaming sector, with increased watch hours, changing dynamics across platforms, and shifting regulations all playing major roles in shaping the trajectory of the industry. Further innovations and market adaptations are expected to sustain this upward trend in the coming years.