Chess Streaming Proves its Staying Power with the Candidates Tournament 2024

Key insights

6 slides

Event Performance

The 2024 Candidates Tournament achieved 3.9 million hours watched.

The event also reached a peak viewership of 215,000.

Category Leader

Chess remains the most popular traditional game on streaming platforms.

It outperformed poker by 26 million hours watched over the past year. Other titles like Codenames and Monopoly Plus trail significantly.

Like a seasoned champion, chess holds its ground as the top contender among traditional games in the streaming arena.

26 million

Hours watched by which chess outperformed poker over the past year.

Codenames and Monopoly Plus: under 6 million

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Summary

The Candidates Tournament 2024 serves as a primary case study for the enduring popularity of chess within the live-streaming landscape. The event achieved significant engagement, recording 3.9 million hours watched and a peak viewership of 215,000. Notably, the vast majority of this audience consumed content through official channels, with co-streaming accounting for only 1.8% of total viewership, indicating a strong preference for the game itself over personality-driven commentary.

The analysis highlights a broader trend of traditional board and card games maintaining a robust presence on streaming platforms despite the dominance of high-fidelity video games. Chess remains the leader in this category, outperforming poker by 26 million hours watched over the past year. This sustained interest is attributed to a combination of factors, including the "transmedia effect" of the series Queen’s Gambit, which catalyzed a surge in viewership that has persisted in the tens of millions annually since 2020. Furthermore, the rise of prominent female streamers, such as Anna Cramling and the Botez sisters, has played a crucial role in diversifying the content landscape and maintaining audience interest.

The findings suggest that traditional games are experiencing a cultural renaissance, supported by both digital streaming success and physical trends like the growth of board game cafes. While chess remains the most prominent example, the success of titles like Balatro underscores a growing appetite for traditional gaming aesthetics. The data, derived from streaming platform analytics, confirms that chess has successfully transitioned from a niche interest to a staple of the competitive streaming ecosystem, with a stable, engaged fanbase that continues to grow alongside new tournament cycles.