As the world's largest community for gamers, Twitch continues leading the audience in live broadcasts, with a total of 12.8 billion hours watched in the first half of 2021. However, the number of active streamers on the platforms has fallen significantly since the beginning of the year.
According to data presented by MejoresApuestas, the number of Twitch streamers amounted to just over 8 million in August or 1.8 million less than in the same month a year ago.
A Sharp Fall After a Peak in January
According to the Twitch Tracker data, the number of Twitch streamers floated between 3 and 4 million over the past few years. However, the explosive growth of the entire gaming industry in 2020 created a huge space for new streamers, with their total number rising to all-time highs.
Statistics show that in January last year, there were 3.9 million active streamers on the platform. After slipping to 3.7 million in February, this figure soared to around 7.2 million in April and continued rising. By the end of the year, Twitch had 9.2 million active streamers, a massive 175% increase in a year.
However, the year 2021 set a new record, with the number of streamers rising to 9.9 million in January, the highest figure in the platform's history. Since then, this number has been falling almost continually, with only March and June as exceptions. Statistics show the biggest fall was recorded between May and July when the number of streamers plunged by 740,000.
As of August, 8.07 million streamers were using the platform actively, only 4% more than in the same month a year ago.
Average Viewership Down by 20% Since May
During the first half of 2021, Twitch has continued growing its platform engagement at an incredible pace, with users worldwide watching a total of 12.8 billion hours, a massive 90% increase year-over-year. Most of them or 23% were from the United States, followed by Germany and Canada as the leading markets. Also, the average number of viewers hit an all-time high in this period.
Before the pandemic and lockdowns, the popular streaming platform had 1.25 million average current viewers who watched 660 billion minutes of streams in 2019. Last year, the average number of viewers soared to 2.1 million. Such an impressive user base spent more than one trillion minutes watching Twitch streams, a 70% increase in a year.
In May, more than 3.1 million people tuned in to the platform to watch their favorite streamers and gaming titles, the highest number to date. However, the last few months have witnessed a substantial drop, with the number of viewers falling by 20% to around 2.5 million in September.
