Twitch and Facebook Gaming set record highs in January
StreamElements report indicates both streaming platforms more than doubled their viewership year-over-year
Live streaming continues to grow, as the latest report from StreamElements and analytics partner Rainmaker.gg (formerly Arsenal.gg) says Twitch and Facebook Gaming both more than doubled the numbers of hours watched in January 2021 compared to January of 2020.
In a blog post, StreamElements says Twitch and Facebook Gaming saw a 117% increase year-over-year in January 2021, with Twitch's all-time high reached at over 2 billion hours and Facebook Gaming exceeding 439 million hours.
On Twitch, the Just Chatting category led with 242 million hours watched, followed by survival game Rust at 189 million and League of Legends at third place with 163 million.
Rust saw a boost in numbers thanks in part to OfflineTV, a collective of popular streamers and creators, starting a Rust server. Overall, Rust was up 1,226% in month-over-month hours watched.
Every game in the top 10 saw an increase in month-over-month viewership, including Escape From Tarkov at 108 million hours, Fortnite at 91 million, Call of Duty: Warzone at 75 million, Minecraft at 74 million, Grand Theft Auto V at 71 million, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at 58 million, and FIFA 21 rounding out the top 10 with 54 million.
These numbers top those from a record-setting month in December, when Twitch accumulated 1.7 billion hours watched and Facebook Gaming picked up 388 million hours.