Twitch viewers watched way more video game streams in 2021

By Giovanni Colantonio December 23, 2021

Video game viewership was way up in 2021. According to a year-end report from Rainmaker.gg with insight from StreamElements, both Twitch and Facebook gaming saw a nearly 50% increase in hours watched this year.

According to the report, Twitch saw a 45% increase in hours watched this year, totaling 24 billion views. That was up from 17 billion in 2020. Facebook Gaming saw a similar boost, going from 3.6 billion to 5.3 billion hours watched, a 47% increase.

There aren’t many surprises when it comes to what 2021’s most popular stream games were on Twitch. Players watched 2.1 billion hours of Grand Theft Auto V, which was the second most popular category under the more general Just Chatting tag. The rest of the top 10 features stream staples like Fortnite, Minecraft, and League of Legends.

The only real surprise is that Amazon’s New World had an excellent debut year. Players watched 259 million hours of the MMO on Twitch, putting it at No.18 on the overall games by hours viewed ranking. That made it the most popular debut game of 2021.

In terms of streamers, xQcOW was the most popular content creator on the platform for the second year in a row. Other popular streamers in 2021 include loud_coringa, Gaules, and HasanAbi.

The data is somewhat surprising. One might assume that stream viewership would have hit a peak in 2020 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. It would be fair to predict that viewership could have fallen off in 2021 as strict social lockdowns loosened. Instead, the data shows that video game streaming is only growing and that number may balloon even further in 2022 as COVID cases once again spike due to the Omicron variant.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

Gaming

Xbox will hold three video game showcases this June, including a Starfield stream

A spacecraft in Starfield.

Xbox will hold three significant livestreams in June, including an "Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct Double Feature" and an Xbox Games Showcase Extended that will provide an even deeper dive into the games from the double feature.

Every year, Xbox holds some sort of announcement-filled showcase in June. Most of the time, this lined up with E3, but E3 2023 was canceled in March. Still, these three showcases are happening during the week when E3 2023 would have taken place.

Gaming

I ditched my consoles and went to cloud gaming for a week – here’s how it went

A table holding a DualSense controller, a DualSense Backbone, a regular Backbone, and an Xbox Series X controller.

Game streaming has felt like the "next big thing" in gaming for the past decade. I recall trying out services like OnLive back in my college dorm room, playing the same 30-minute trials over and over again. Half the time the service never booted, and the half that it did was a lag-filled mess. Fast forward a couple of years and Sony acquires Gaikai to integrate into PlayStation Now (RIP), but left it largely ignored until Xbox began its push into streaming with its Xcloud initiative. With major tech giants like Google and Amazon failing to crack the game streaming code, Sony and Microsoft appear to be the only two capable of supporting this console-less method of play.

For all the fancy talk about new servers and top-of-the-line streaming technology, I've never been convinced that game streaming would be able to replace the tried and true local experience. After all, even under perfect internet conditions, the speed of light is only so fast. And assuming even most people will have perfect internet conditions itself is laughable. However, I wanted to put my money where my mouth was. How could I judge game streaming if I didn't actually give it a shot?

Gaming

PS Plus’ library is looking more like Game Pass’ in May lineup

Two cars race side-by-side in Grid Legends.

Sony revealed the next batch of three games that will be available throughout May 2023 as part of PlayStation Plus Essential. The lineup includes Grid Legends, Chivalry 2, and Descenders. All are very solid games in their respective genres, but interestingly, they are all also games that Xbox Game Pass subscribers will already have access to.
Grid Legends is the headlining game for this month, and it's a racing game from Codemasters where the standout feature is a story mode framed like a racing documentary with live-action interviews. While I had mixed feelings about the game and the mode when reviewing it last year, those looking for a basic but enjoyable racing game to tide them over until the next Forza Motorsport, Test Drive Unlimited, or The Crew can have some fun with it. If you're subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you're also able to play this game on that platform thanks to EA Play.

For those that are still in a sporty mood, Descenders is an enjoyable downhill biking game that'll scratch the same gaming itch as series like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or Lonely Mountains: Downhill. Then, there's Chivalry 2, a very intense multiplayer game set in medieval times, which gives it a very welcome change in setting compared to many of its multiplayer peers. Both games are currently playable if you have an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, but will likely leave the service at a later date.
If you are subscribed to both PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass, you will be fine skipping out on May's PS Plus Essential titles. If you only own a PlayStation console, though, or want to guarantee that you'll still have these games after they leave Xbox Game Pass, then definitely consider downloading them. These games will all be available with PS Plus from May 1 until June 6. Make sure you pick up April's PS Plus Essential games before May 1 as well.