Data and analytics provider Stream Hatchet has published its quarterly report, delving into the streaming and Esports market to analyse the key trends of the quarter.
The growth rate of streaming as a means of entertainment is stabilising after the boom it experienced during the pandemic. Live viewership has decreased 15 per cent year-on-year, with the number of unique channels falling by 20 per cent and the overall hours broadcast falling by 16 per cent.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, developed by ByteDance secured the top spot for mobile games with over 182 million hours watched, being the seventh most watched game of the quarter – however, several of the other titles in the top ten, such as Minecraft, are available on mobile platforms, and the report doesn’t break down the platforms streamers are playing on.
Twitch remains the biggest platform in terms of live streams, with 68 per cent of the market share – a 1 per cent year-on-year increase – while YouTube sits in second place at 14 per cent – again, rising by 1 per cent.
However, StreamElements’ monthly report for June, published on July 29th, shows that there’s a growing divergence in streaming content, with mobile streams growing on YouTube at a quicker rate compared to Twitch. There are numerous factors which could impact this divergence, such as the difference in monetisation potential across platforms.
Garena Free Fire, Battlegrounds Mobile India, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang were all in the top ten most viewed games on YouTube, none of which were featured in the Twitch top ten for the same period.
We spoke to YouTuber and Twitch streamer Boilon, who focuses on the mobile title Marvel Strike Force, about his experiences on both platforms.
“Twitch is good for people who are really big or have a large follower and subscriber base, but pretty awful for people on the lower end of the scale,” he stated. “If you’re not a big player on Twitch with close to 1k active viewers & an equivalent of resultant subscribers it probably isn’t worth your time to lean on Twitch for monetization purposes”
This is especially notable in the case of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which was one of the most viewed games for the quarter. In total, Mobile Bang Bang was viewed for 18 million hours in June on YouTube, making up a significant portion of the total viewership which saw the game place seventh on the most-viewed game of the quarter. Strong performances on YouTube for April and May could also have contributed to the game’s success.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang developer ByteDance generated over $1 billion between June 2021 and June 2022. The developer hasn’t entered the Unicorn Club with any one game as of yet, but they could well be on track for success.