Key Takeaways: Twitch Stats & Trends

• Twitch is a live streaming service popular for video game streaming, including esports broadcasts.
• Founded in 2011, Twitch is a spinoff of the now-defunct broadcast platform Justin.TV, which allowed users to broadcast a wide variety of user-generated live video content, including music, gaming, sports, entertainment, and news and tech. 
• Twitch is the biggest video game live streaming platform, drawing over 35 million average unique users. 
• Twitch is expected to see continued growth over the next two years. Insider Intelligence’s analysis shows that 13.7% of Twitch’s monthly viewership will comprise video content consumers in the U.S.²⁰

Twitch is a big deal. It is almost synonymous with video game live streaming, and it outperforms competitors like YouTube and Dailymotion in that area. How well does Twitch actually perform, though? This Twitch statistics article explores Twitch’s performance based on hard numbers, including growth, viewers, streamers, demographics and market share. 

It is one of America’s most popular live streaming platforms, where users can stream virtually any kind of content, including video games, music, sports, cooking and Q&A sessions. It’s accessible through several platforms. You can stream through the official website or download the app for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4 and devices like Chromcast and Apple TV.

Twitch streams give game enthusiasts a feel for the latest games without having to download or play them. Viewers also get to be entertained by engaging with the streamer’s personality during gameplay. This concept also works for other kinds of streamable content on Twitch.  

If you’re interested in gaming insights in particular, read our video game and online gaming statistics guide. Using a VPN while gaming can help you access servers and games you’d normally be unable to access. Read our guide on the best VPN for gaming. 

10 Key Twitch Statistics: Overview

Here’s a roundup of some key statistics about Twitch, focusing on important metrics, such as viewers stats, streamers and financials. 

1. Twitch draws over 35 million average daily unique users.¹⁵
2. Twitch reports that it has over 2.5 million average viewers at any given time.¹⁵
3. Each month, 7 million streamers go live on Twitch.¹⁵
4. Twitch recorded over 1.3 trillion minutes of watch time in 2022.¹⁵
5. Twitch has secured a total of $35 million in funding over 3 rounds. Their latest funding came from a series C round on Sept. 30, 2013.¹⁶
6. Twitch is bankrolled by nine investors, of which Thrive Capital and Nelstone Ventures are the most recent.¹⁶
7. Twitch has acquired six organizations. IGDB.com is its most recent acquisition on Sept. 18, 2019.¹⁶
8. Amazon acquired Twitch in 2014 for $970 million in cash.²⁵
9. Within three years of Twitch’s launch, it accounted for nearly 2% of all traffic in the U.S.¹³
10. Twitch had 51,480 global partners in 2020.¹

The History of Twitch: When Was Twitch Founded and Where Is It Headed?

Twitch was introduced as a spin-off of Justin.TV by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear in 2011. Speaking in an interview with TechCrunch, Kan revealed that Justin.TV, which they founded in 2007, was created to implement a reality TV show concept involving them streaming about their lives 24/7. 

Justin.TV evolved into a network of channels where users could stream their own online videos in various categories, including gaming, people & lifecasting, esports, music & radio, and entertainment. However, people found it hard to stream games because of the difficulty of setting up webcams, microphones and specialty software.²⁶

Justin.TV solved this problem by hiring specialists to help users set up video game streams. In 2011, the company introduced Twitch to focus on its video game live streaming category.²⁷

Twitch’s launch helped catapult the game streaming industry to wide acclaim. According to Kan, games are the top category on YouTube, attracting up to 55 million worldwide views per month.¹⁸

Twitch’s Big Breaks

Twitch had several big breaks in 2014. The site gained a lot of traction when a stream called “Twitch Plays Pokemon” went viral.²⁸ On Aug. 25, 2014, Amazon purchased Twitch for $970 million. That same year, Justin.TV was rebranded Twitch Interactive, indicating that Twitch had risen to become the predominant service in the company.²⁹

By 2020, Twitch had become the go-to platform for video game streaming, with over 9.7 million active streamers per month.¹⁹ The pandemic drove a 27.3% spike in growth in 2020 and an 11.8% increase in 2021.²⁰ According to TwitchTracker, Twitch had 7.6 million active monthly streamers in 2022 and has attracted over 7.3 million active streamers each month in 2023 so far.¹

Insider Intelligence forecasts that by 2025, 13.7% of video content consumers in the U.S. will watch videos on Twitch at least once a month. It bases this projection on the fact that Twitch is currently the driving force for three fast-growing industries in the U.S.: the gaming space, sports and legalized gambling.²⁰

Twitch has been strict with its policy on the gambling category. In 2022, Twitch announced a ban on unlicensed gambling live streams by sites such as Stake.com, Rollbit.com and Duelbits.com.²³

Twitch’s Growth Over the Years

A chart by TwitchTracker shows how Twitch has grown over the years based on several metrics: average number of concurrent viewers, average number of concurrent channels, monthly broadcasters and Twitch partners. All these metrics showed steady growth from 2012, the year after its launch, to 2021. However, growth became a bit irregular after 2021. 

1. Twitch Growth Based on Average Concurrent Viewers 

In 2012, Twitch had about 100,000 average concurrent users. By 2016, it had acquired about 500,000 more users, and by 2021, Twitch had a whopping 2.78 million users. By 2022, its growth had decreased by 7.19%, coming in at 2.58 million users. In 2023, Twitch Tracker recorded an average concurrent viewer growth of about 2.44 million.¹

2. Twitch Growth Based on Average Concurrent Channels 

In 2012, Twitch had roughly 2,000 average concurrent channels. By 2018, Twitch had amassed about 20 times that amount, coming in at about 41,000 channels. In 2021, its growth was more than double that size, coming in at 105,000 channels. The following year, Twitch Tracker recorded a decline of about 10,000 channels, ending with roughly 92,000. In 2023, Twitch recorded an average concurrent channel growth of about 93,000.¹

3. Twitch Growth Based on Monthly Broadcasters 

In terms of monthly broadcasters, which refers to the number of unique viewers who have streamed the platform within a specific calendar month, Twitch has had impressive growth. It started with roughly 300,000 users in 2012 and had tripled in growth by 2013. Just two years later, in 2015, it tripled in growth again, coming in at around 1.7 million users. 

The chart doesn’t show Twitch’s number of monthly broadcasters for 2016. By 2021, Twitch had acquired about 8.46 million users. However, it had lost almost a million users by 2022 and lost about 300,000 more in 2023.¹

4. Twitch Growth Based on Partners 

Twitch users can apply for two kinds of programs on the platform — affiliate and partner — based on several parameters met within the last 30 days prior to applying. These include concurrent viewership, length of streaming and frequency of streaming. 

Regarded as a higher-ranking category than affiliates, Twitch partners receive several benefits, including access to premium features and higher shares of revenue from Twitch’s ad and subscription programs. 

Twitch Tracker recorded a partner size of 3,400 partners in 2012. By 2015, it had acquired almost four times that amount and, just two years later, it had gained about 27,000 partners. It reached about 51,000 users in 2020 and maintained this partner count through 2021. Twitch Tracker didn’t record its partner count for the years 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2023.¹

Twitch Viewership Statistics

Here are some of the most interesting statistics about viewership on Twitch. 

5. Total Twitch Users and Viewership Stats

According to TwitchTracker, Twitch has had a total of 3,351,476 live viewers from Sept. 1 to Sept. 7, 2023. Its all-time viewership peak was 6,647,412 on June 25, 2022.²

6. Daily & Monthly Active Users

According to TwitchTracker, Twitch has had about 7.42 million active monthly users on average so far in 2023. It has also had an average of 1.94 million daily active users.¹

Peak & Average Concurrent Viewers

Twitch had its highest number of concurrent viewers on Aug. 27, 2023, coming in at approximately 3,951,588 users.

7. Recent Viewership Statistics For A Seven-Day Period

A TwitchTracker chart shows the number of concurrent viewers on Twitch for the seven-day period from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2. During that period, concurrent viewership on Twitch peaked at around 8 p.m. UTC + 1 and dipped at around 8 a.m. UTC + 1.

Twitch had its highest number of concurrent viewers on Aug. 27, coming in at approximately 3,951,588 users. It had the lowest number of concurrent viewers on Aug. 30, with about 3,416,957 users.²

8. Concurrent Viewers by Month 

Twitch had steady growth in concurrent viewership per month from 2012 to 2020. In September 2012, it had an average of 77,764 concurrent viewers, and by March 2020, it had acquired up to an average of 1,638,049 concurrent viewers. 

In April 2020, Twitch’s average monthly concurrent viewership reached its highest point, coming in at 2,488,811 viewers. Since then, it’s shown a slight decline. As of September 2023, Twitch has an average of 2,344,766 viewers per month.²

Twitch Revenue Statistics

These Twitch revenue stats give an overview of how much Twitch has made through advertising and in-app purchases. 

9. Twitch Advertising Revenue

Twitch ads generated $230 million in revenue in 2018. The company was poised to generate an average ad revenue of $300 million in 2019. In 2020, the company aimed to achieve an ad revenue between $500 and $600 million.

In May 2023, Twitch’s app downloads skyrocketed from 20,000 to 60,000 on the app stores in the U.S. This increase in downloads led to a huge increase in Twitch revenue. In May 2023, Twitch generated $400,000 from the app stores in the U.S. in one day.⁵

10. In-App Purchase Statistics

Twitch had its largest in-app purchase revenue in the first quarter of 2021, with $101.54 million. Most recently, in the second quarter of 2023, Twitch made $29.95 million in app revenue.⁶

11. How Much Is Twitch Worth?

Needham & Company analysts report that Twitch is currently worth $45 billion, or 4% of its parent company Amazon’s total market cap. According to the analysts, if Twitch were its own company, it would be valued at $19 billion. The other $25.6 billion is “indirect value” contributed to other Amazon businesses.⁷

Twitch Viewers: By the Numbers

Here is a breakdown of Twitch’s user demographics by age, gender and language preferences. 

12. Age User Demographics

A higher percentage of Twitch users are young. Among its user base, 41% are aged between 16 and 24 years, 32% are aged between 25 and 32 years, 17% are aged between 35 and 44 years, 7% are aged 45 to 54 years, and 3% are aged 55 to 64 years.⁸

13. Gender User Demographics

As of 2019, 65% of Twitch’s user base was male, while 35% of its audience was female. A large percentage of Twitch’s male users are 16 to 34 years old (73%).⁸

14. Language User Demographics 

The most popular languages spoken by Twitch users are English, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. A large majority of Twitch’s user base is English speakers, who account for 53.29% of the viewership. 

There is a large gap of 41.87% between the percentage of English-speaking users and the second most popular language, Spanish, which 11.42% of Twitch users speak. Beyond that, 7.72% speak Russian and 1.52% speak Chinese.⁹

The Most Popular Channels and Games on Twitch

These stats break down the most popular active channels, games and categories on Twitch. 

15. Who Is the Most Popular Streamer on Twitch?

According to TwitchTracker, the most popular streamer on Twitch based on average concurrent viewers, followers, views and stream time from Aug 7. to Sept. 6, 2023, was Tarik. During this time, Tarik, whose real name is Tarik Celik, gained 70,510 average viewers, 87,700 followers, 93.3 million views and 165.8 hours of stream time.¹⁴

16. Twitch Channels With the Highest Viewership

We’ve created tables of Twitch’s top 10 channels from Aug. 7 to Sept. 6, 2023, by average concurrent viewers and all-time peak viewers. 

Top Twitch Channels by Average Concurrent Viewers 

Warframe is the Twitch channel with the most average concurrent viewers by far, drawing 218,658 views.¹⁴

17. Top Twitch Channels by All-Time Peak Viewers 

Ibai is the channel with the highest peak viewership of all time on Twitch. On July 1, 2023, Ibai broke the Twitch world record for most concurrent users, drawing 3.4 million viewers.¹⁴ Ibai, whose full name is Ibai Llanos, is a top Spanish streamer best known for streaming Just Chatting, as well as games like Leagues of Legends, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto 5. 

These are the number of all-time peak viewers for the top Twitch streamers on Sept. 20, 2023. 

18. Most Watched Games & Categories on Twitch 

According to TwitchTracker, Just Chatting is the most streamed category on Twitch, with about 335,000 average concurrent viewers and 56.4 million hours of watch time on September 20, 2023, as of the last seven days prior.¹⁰ Another report by Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet shows that Just Chatting grew 31% from 522 million hours to 682 million in Q4 2020.¹¹

TwitchTracker ranks Just Chatting as the most watched game even though it is not a game but rather a category of streams where streamers converse with each other or with their viewers. Just Chatting’s growth is an indication of how gamers value interacting with streamers and connecting with them beyond gameplay.  

Here are the most popular games and categories on Twitch for a week period from Aug. 30 to Sept. 6, 2023.  

Twitch in the Live Streaming Market

As a top player in video game streaming, Twitch accounts for a large share of the live streaming market. These stats show how Twitch compares to other popular live streaming platforms in market share. 

19. Twitch’s Live Streaming Market Share

Twitch now accounts for about 65.8% of the market share for hours watched, marking a 2.2% increase from the previous quarter, and 90% of the market share for hours streamed, according to a Q4 report by Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet.¹¹

20. Global Traffic Rank

Similarweb reveals that Twitch.TV is ranked 48th in global traffic compared to other sites in July 2023.¹²

21. Comparison With Other Live Streaming Platforms

Twitch represents a much larger portion of the live streaming market share than YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming combined. While it accounts for 90% of the market share for hours streamed, YouTube Gaming represents just 4.1% and Facebook Gaming 5.7%.¹¹

22. Amazon’s Acquisition of Twitch 

When Amazon acquired Twitch in 2014, Twitch had over 15 billion minutes of content, and the average user spent over 100 minutes daily on the site. It also accounted for nearly 2% of U.S. peak internet traffic.¹³

Final Thoughts: Twitch Stats

Like Facebook, Google, Apple and other trailblazers, Twitch changed the way we interact with online content. As a result, it has remained the top player in the gaming scene for many years. There’s no way to tell for certain what the future holds for Twitch, but it still has all the clout to remain a top player for the foreseeable future. 

If you can’t access Twitch in your country due to restrictions, read our guide on how to unblock Twitch using a VPN. Seeing intrusive ad pop-ups while streaming can be annoying (read our comprehensive guide on how to block Twitch ads). 

What’s your favorite activity on Twitch? How do you think it will fare in the future? Let us know in the comment section below, and as always, thanks for reading. 

FAQ: Twitch Stats

• How Do I See My Twitch Stats?

  You can view your Twitch stats under the “analytics” tab on your creator dashboard.

• What Is Considered Top 1% of Twitch?

  According to Old School Gamers, users who average about 20 viewers per stream are roughly in the top 1% of all streamers on Twitch. [24]

• What Are the Average Viewers on Twitch?

  As of September 2023, Twitch has an average of 2,286,245 viewers per month. [2]

• How Many Viewers Does xQc Have?

  According to TwitchTracker, xQc has 39,188 average viewers and 61,184 peak viewers on September 20, 2023. [22]

Sources:

1. Twitch Tracker Overview
2. Twitch Viewers Statistics 
3. Twitch TV Facts & Figures 
4. Streamers With The Most Viewers 
5. Twitch Revenue Statistics 
6. App revenue generated through Twitch worldwide from 4th quarter 2017 to 2nd quarter 2023
7. Amazon’s Twitch is worth $45 billion – Needham & Company
8. Watch and Learn: The Meteoric Rise of Twitch 
9. Most common language spoken on Twitch worldwide as of July 2023
10. Most Watched Games on Twitch 
11. Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet Q4 Live Streaming Industry Report
12. Twitch.TV 
13. Amazon Buys Twitch for $970 Million in Cash 
14. Twitch Top Streamers 
15. Twitch Press Center Facts and Figures 
16. Twitch Crunchbase 
17. Twitch Revenue and Usage Statistics 
18. Twitch Founder: We Turned A ‘Terrible Idea’ Into A Billion-Dollar Company
19. Twitch History 
20. US Twitch Viewer Stats 
21. A Deep Dive Into Twitch: 100+ Statistics For 2023
22. xQc
23. How Many Viewers Do The Top 1% Of Twitch Streamers Have?
24. Amazon.com to acquire Twitch 
25. Justin.TV 
26. Justin.tv Launches TwitchTV, the World’s Largest Competitive Video Gaming Network
27. Twitch Plays Pokemon is so popular it’s breaking Twitch chat
28. Justin.tv Shuts Down To Let The Company Focus On Twitch