ReportStream Hatchet
Video Game Streaming Trends Report: 2022 First Quarter
1 Mar 202223 pages~20 min full read
Twitch maintains a dominant market position, accounting for approximately 75% of all streamed hours and 80% of esports viewership.
Total hours watched in Q1 2022 declined 6% from the previous quarter, yet remains 66% higher than Q1 2020 and 140% above Q1 2019 levels.
A small segment of core viewers, representing only 7.8% of the total audience, generates two-thirds of all watch time and is 24 times more receptive to repeated advertising than casual viewers.
While YouTube and Facebook combined contribute less than 10% of total streaming hours, emerging platforms like AfreecaTV, Trovo, and NaverTV are experiencing double-digit growth.
New releases such as Elden Ring and Lost Ark successfully captured core-viewer engagement, with both titles deriving over 50% of their streaming hours from this demographic.
Mobile game streaming is heavily driven by core fans, who account for 78% of total hours despite the broader market's casual-heavy download volume.
Monetization strategies diverge between content formats, as VOD-first creators generate twice as many video-on-demand views per concurrent viewer compared to live-stream-focused creators.
The primary aim of the analysis is to map the state of global video‑game streaming in the first quarter of 2022, linking audience behavior to platform performance, game releases, and advertising potential. While overall viewership growth has begun to temper—total hours watched fell 6 % from the previous quarter—it remains 66 % higher than the same period in 2020 and 140 % above Q1 2019, underscoring the sector’s continued expansion despite pandemic stabilization.
Twitch retains overwhelming dominance, delivering roughly three‑quarters of all streamed hours and accounting for 80 % of esports viewership, which itself showed only a 0.3 % dip year‑over‑year but rose 63 % since 2019. Emerging competitors such as AfreecaTV, Trovo and NaverTV posted double‑digit growth, yet YouTube and Facebook together contributed less than 10 % of total hours. Core viewers—just 7.8 % of the audience—generated two‑thirds of watch time, averaging 276 minutes per day and proving 24 times more receptive to repeated advertising than casual viewers, who average 12 minutes daily.
Game‑level insights reveal that legacy titles like Grand Theft Auto V and League of Legends remain top‑draws, while new releases such as Elden Ring and Lost Ark captured strong core‑viewer engagement, each accounting for over half of their streaming hours. Mobile game streaming is heavily core‑oriented, with 78 % of hours coming from core fans despite casual dominance in downloads. Content creators mirror these patterns: xQcOW led live streams with 62.8 million hours, while VOD‑first creators like Rubius generated twice as many video‑on‑demand views per concurrent viewer, highlighting divergent monetization pathways.
