Amazon’s live streaming platform Twitch reported a 9% decline in viewership during the month of February while hitting 1.64 billion hours watched, according to a new report from StreamElements and Rainmaker.gg.
The most watched games on Twitch are as follows (including watch numbers):
- League of Legends – 111 million hours
- Grand Theft Auto V – 89 million hours
- Valorant – 87 million hours
- Hogwarts Legacy – 71 million hours
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: Warzone – 54 million hours
- Apex Legends – 40 million hours
- Minecraft – 39 million hours
- Dota 2 – 37 million hours
- Fortnite – 34 million hours
The Twitch platform reached 1.9 billion hours watched during the month of February 2022, in comparison, so there has been a marked drop in data.
Twitch has been subjected to layoffs across Amazon, with 400 employees losing their jobs as the company cuts back. Couples with the recent departure of Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, it appears Twitch is tightening their belts.
“Under the leadership of Emmett Shear for the past 16 years, Twitch has grown into the dominant platform in the gaming livestreaming space” Gil Hirsch, CEO/Co-founder of StreamElements said of Shear’s departure. “While Twitch remains steady and consistent with enticing viewership numbers, it will be interesting to see if they can generate more upward momentum with the reins now handed off to a new CEO.”
Another example of the pressing financial factors is their recent controversial announcement of a 50/50 split with streamers, one that was not well received. However, given that millions of streamers stream on Twitch, with the majority not bringing any revenue of ROI to the platform, it was only a matter of time before the company started repositioning to be able to stay afloat.
Whether this indicates the start of the fall of Twitch remains to be seen, and it appears unlikely anytime soon give then backing of Amazon, but these numbers plus the recent chain of events certainly signal to down times for the mammoth streaming platform.
