If you were unaware of the power of streaming, the 2015 retrospective from Twitch is full of big statistics that might make you a believer. According to the company, users streamed 241,441,823,059 minutes on Twitch — a total of 459,366 years worth of videos.
Broken down with comScore Data, Twitch users watched 421.6 minutes per user per month, which is much higher than YouTube’s 291.0 minutes per user per month. And an average of 550,000 users watched concurrently on any given stream, meaning that although YouTube is still a goliath when it comes to online viewing, Twitch users watch content in volume for much longer.
The highest number of peak concurrent viewers on Twitch was 2,098,529 — attributed directly to the intersection of two major eSports tournaments, both ESL One: Cologne 2015 and the League of Legends NA LCS Finals, on August 23.
Twitch seems to get its power from content surrounding a strong core of games that are played both professionally and for entertainment value. But it’s no surprise that the number one most-streamed game last year was ‘League of Legends,’ followed by fellow eSports headliners ‘Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’ and ‘DOTA 2.’
It’s clear that people are interested in these games from that eSports perspective, which is rapidly rising in viewership and fan appeal.
56 percent of Twitch users access the platform from their computers, but 2015 saw a big boost in mobile numbers. Now, 35 percent of users are viewing streams and creating content from mobile.
Perhaps the biggest upside is that some good generated out of all of it. The company’s streamers and viewers also raised $17,400,000 million for more than 55 charities in 2015, a new high point in Twitch’s long relationship with charities.
When it comes to providing quality streaming with a predominant bent towards gaming, Twitch still maintains the lion’s share of the audience. But as companies like Google edge in with their YouTube Gaming platform, it will be interesting to see whether that has any impact on Twitch’s meteoric growth.
One thing is for sure: streaming is here to stay.
➤ Twitch
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