Twitch by the Numbers: Stats, Users, Demographics & Fun Facts

Another stage in the gaming revolution is live streaming. Twitch was founded in 2011 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear as a separate service. It used to be a part of Justin.tv until then.

With the service, gamers can stream their live gameplay to Twitch users and also make the video available for people who want to view later.

Viewers can see the gamer through a webcam and they can drop comment during live games. Two or more gamers can also play together to battle it out for the entertainment of viewers.

Twitch has increased in popularity since 2011 when it started and holds a large share of the gaming live streaming industry. What are the numbers behind Twitch as a live streaming platform?

Twitch Fun Facts

Twitch User Statistics

1. Twitch is the 31st most popular website online

According to the Alexa rank, Twitch is the 31st most popular website online and 14th most popular in the United States. For a service that is focused mostly on gaming, this is an impressive achievement.

2. There’s an average of 46 billion minutes watched per month

For a live streaming service, one of the biggest ways to judge its engagement is the number of times users spend watching videos and live streams on the platform.

In 2018, Twitch has been able to average a whopping 46 billion minutes of videos watched on the platform every month.

3. There’s an average of 3.3 million unique Twitch broadcasters per month

For a gaming platform, there’s a need for gamers as they’re the content providers. Many users visit the website to either show their skills as gamers or watch other gamers.

To stream a game to other Twitch users, you have to broadcast it. Some of the tools recommended by Twitch for this are Streamlabs, StreamElements, Muxy, and OperaEvent. Of Twitch users, 3.3 million of them broadcast games to other users.

4. 355 billion minutes were watched on Twitch in 2017

In 2017, Twitch users watched 355 billion minutes of live streaming and recorded videos. This is up from 292 billion minutes watched in 2016.

This is a lot of time watching videos. It also shows a massive increase in the usage of the platform in just a single year. When you look at this value, that’s almost a billion minutes watched daily.

5. 81.5% of Twitch users are male

Gaming is usually a male-dominated form of entertainment. Perhaps, this stat will not be a surprise to most people. For people who may be surprised, it’s probably about how the platform got an 18.5% female population.

The truth is that there are female gamers. In fact, there are very good ones. But the number is low. In another sense, Twitch offers other types of content apart from gaming and this could be an attraction for some set of users.

6. 35% of Twitch views are on mobile

Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have become popular over the years. But it’s understandable if many people prefer to view Twitch on larger screens.

For gaming, a larger screen like a PC or TV provides a better experience. This is why despite mobile devices accounting for a larger share of the internet traffic, they only account for 35% of Twitch views.

7. 55% of Twitch users are between the ages of 18 and 34

This is also not a surprise as the majority of gamers are young people. The only surprise that may be here is that there are 45% of users outside that age group.

This is probably due to the 13 to 17-year-olds and the older age group. Most people who start gaming at a young age usually don’t stop it when they grow up. There may be a reduction in usage but they still continue to play, especially with friends.

For people who started playing in the early 1990s, some are older than 34 today but still continue to play. Talking about the younger players, Twitch has restricted the age of registration to 13. For players who are below 18, there must be parental monitoring to make sure they don’t abuse the platform.

However, the truth is that many people start playing games before they’re 13. Twitch has not yet found a way to bring in these young users. Having a large share of young users is positive for Twitch.

8. Twitch receives more than 15 million unique daily visitors

On an average day, 15 million people view game videos on Twitch.

This number includes both gamers who stream their gameplay and enthusiast who go to watch other people play. In some cases, gamers get tips from pros on how to improve their own gameplay.

9. 590 million bits have been cheered on Twitch

Bits are virtual goods that Twitch users can buy to cheer in chat. This can be used to support a gamer in Twitch affiliate or partnership programs. This is a huge number.

10. There are over 140 million unique viewers per month

This is the number of unique viewers that Twitch receives on the live streams and videos on its platform.

11. Twitch has 124 million clips that have been viewed over 1.7 billion times

Gamers can stream their gameplay live or upload a recorded gameplay. But even when users are unable to catch up with a live stream, they can still watch the recorded version later. However, a clip helps you to capture the most interesting part of a video. This video could be as short as 10 seconds or as long as 60 seconds.

When a user clicks on the clip button, Twitch will capture 25 seconds before and 5 seconds after that point to form a 30-second clip. Users can edit the length to shorten it or elongate it. This short video is shareable to social media and it also increases the popularity of the video.

Twitch has over 124 million clips on its website and these clips have been watched over 1.7 billion times. Providing a way for users to share their content on social media means Twitch can reach a wider audience.

12. An average Twitch user spends 95 minutes daily on the platform

This is a platform for gaming enthusiasts. And addicts. One of the main ways to fuel addiction to an activity is to spend time on it. For people who are addicted to gaming, they want to stream their games and also see what other gamers are doing.

Twitch users who watch live streams or record gameplay can easily exceed this amount of time. Regardless of the factors responsible for this huge amount of time spent, it’s still impressive. This is as high as more popular platforms like Netflix or YouTube.

13. 14.2 billion chat messages have been sent using Twitch

During live streams, users can send chats to the gamer. This is to encourage interactions between the gamer and the viewers. Sometimes, this could just be a comment about the game.

For a single live stream, it’s common to see many chats during the duration of the game. Twitch users have been able to send more than 14.2 billion chat messages.

14. There have been 153 million total whispers sent

Sometimes, chats can be overcrowded. Whisper is an opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation with another twitch user.

The user can see your whisper and both of you can chat. For users who are offline, they can see their whisper notifications when they come online. There have been 153 million whispers sent since the feature launched in 2015.

15. There are over 769 million hours watched per month

This is the number of hours that Twitch users spend watching live streams and videos on Twitch.

16. There are more than a million free Twitch Prime channel subscriptions

This is a feature that comes as an added feature for Twitch users who already subscribe to Amazon Prime and Prime video.

They have access to channel subscriptions at no additional cost, bonus games and in-game content, exclusive emotes, etc. There are more than a million Twitch members on this plan.

17. eSports account for 21.3% of Twitch views

eSports has increased in popularity over the years. With tournaments where gamers come together to compete and win, it generates excitement for the viewers.

About 1 in 5 views on Twitch are from eSports. An example of this popularity is the increase in Twitch downloads in China during the Asian eSports Arena of Valor tournament.

18. The United States accounts for 21.73% of Twitch viewers

Twitch is an American company. Even though it’s available to users worldwide, it’s no surprise that the United States is still the most popular nation on Twitch.

According to Similar Web, users from the United States account for 21.73% of the total Twitch viewership. This is far ahead of any other country. Russia comes in at second with 6.54% while Germany comes third with 6.41%.

19. 62.87% of Twitch activity is in the English language

With over 20 languages on the platform, the English language is still the most popular language by far.

20. Twitch’s peak viewing time occurs at 16:00 EST

The platform has the highest number of viewers at 16:00 EST. This could coincide with when some users leave work or are free to indulge their gaming habits.

21. Fortnite is the most popular game on Twitch in 2018

There are thousands of game on Twitch and Fortnite has been the most popular game for a while. It was the most popular game in 2017 and it has been in 2018. For instance, Fortnite has 1,460,297 peak concurrent views.

22. There are over 38,000 games on Twitch

The live streaming service underlines its position as a strong player in the gaming industry.

These games range from crime to real-life simulation. With over 38,000 games, any gamer can find a game that suits their needs.

23. Ninja is the top Twitch user with more than 12 million followers

Richard Tyler Blevins, popularly known as Ninja, has become a legend gamer on Twitch. He is by far the most popular Twitch user with over 12 million followers.

This has also made him one of the most popular gamers in the world.

24. Ninja was watched for over 161 thousand hours in 2017

Having millions of followers also mean having a lot of views. In 2017 alone, Ninja’s videos were watched for over 161 thousand hours.

With his follower base and viewership figures, Ninja has been able to make more than $500,000 from Twitch every month.

25. There were over 1 million concurrent viewers for ELEAGUE’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Grand Final

There are competitions on Twitch where users can play games to win a tournament. This was the event with the highest number of concurrent views during the year 2017 with over a million.

26. There were over 245 thousand concurrent viewers on Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok’s channel

This channel had the highest concurrent views in 2017 with more than 245 thousand people viewing it at a time.

27. There were over 436 thousand concurrent viewers on Destiny 2

This was the biggest game premiere of the year 2017 and Twitch attracted 436 thousand concurrent viewers. Since then Destiny 2 has been one of the top games on the platform.

28. Twitch has an average of 953 thousand average concurrent viewers

This is the average number of people watching Twitch at any period of time.

The live streaming service increased its viewership figures from 788 thousand concurrent viewers in the last quarter of 2017 to 953 thousand in the first quarter of 2018. This is a growth value that was faster than the company’s competitors.

29. Twitch has over 9 million channels

Users on the live streaming platform have created 9 million channels to show a live stream of their gameplay or upload the video of a recorded game for other users.

Twitch Financial Statistics

30. Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $970 million in 2014

In 2014, as Twitch gained popularity among gamers, they got in negotiations with YouTube over an acquisition. YouTube already had many gamers on its platform who could easily use the Twitch platform. There was a rumor of about $1 billion acquisition.

However, the move broke down. And Amazon ended up buying Twitch for $970 million. Twitch continued to operate independently as part of Twitch Interactive. Since then, Twitch has grown.

Even though there’s no figure of Twitch’s current revenue or net worth from Amazon, analysts believe the streaming platform could be worth between $5 and 10 billion to Amazon.

31. Twitch made $2.2 billion revenue in 2017

According to a study by SuperData Research, Twitch made $1.6 billion in 2014 occupying 43% market share of the $3.8 billion markets.

Although Twitch has not been releasing revenue figures, it announced at the TwitchCon that it had a massive increase in revenue in 2017 compared to the previous year. There’s also a 2.4 billion viewership hours in the Q1 2018. The company also claimed that the amount it paid individual partners in 2017 was double that of the previous year.

32. The Twitch community has raised over $75 million for charity for over 100 charities

For Twitch, everything is not about gaming when you consider the number amount of donations users give to charities. Twitch is not only a gaming community where users come to stream games to their followers or watch other gamers play. The community is also committed to helping people in need. [source]

Since the live streaming video platform started donations in 2012, it has raised over $75 million through its streamers and other users. And this doesn’t look like slowing down. As of July 2017, Twitch had raised $9.1 million in the first 6 months to set another record. This was 54% more raised compared to the previous year.

33. There are more than 27,000 partnered streamers

Twitch is a big platform where it’s difficult to build a large audience. But if you’re able to build a large audience, you can make a lot of money through the Twitch partnership program.

There are requirements for the partnership program and these include a large following and a minimum number of videos to be posted weekly. Partners gain benefits like earning from users who subscribe to their channel, having a share of revenue from ads in their videos, and taking donations from users. Twitch has over 27,000 partners on its platform.

34. Twitch has more than 220,000 affiliate streamers

Twitch affiliates are a level lower than partners. For a Twitch user to qualify for the affiliate program, they need to have at least 50 followers.

Furthermore, they need to have at least 500 total minutes broadcast, 7 unique broadcast days, and an average of 3 or more concurrent viewers in the past 30 days. With the affiliate program, Twitch users can earn from subscriptions on their channel. They can also earn when bits are cheered on their channel or through game sales or in-game purchases.

These are steps to improve engagement on the platform as its affiliate and partnership programs are tied to engagement and production of content.

Conclusion

Twitch is a company that’s still growing as a live streaming platform. With its introduction of other services like music, there’s a big room for improvement for this platform.