Viewership for both Facebook Gaming and Twitch has reportedly declined for a third straight month. Numbers were just released for the month of April which continued the trend. The good news here is that these numbers are nowhere near as bad as they were back in 2020. Still, consistently dipping in viewership isn’t exactly what these platforms aspire to see.
This trend first started to show up in January of 2022. They had around two billion hours watched during that month. The numbers dipped down a small bit from there in February, then again in March and now in April. Since that two billion point, they have dropped down to 1.8 million hours watched. These are all numbers from just Twitch.
Heading into Facebook Gaming now, they had a massive month of January. They were over the 600 million hours watched mark at the start of the year. They dipped down to below 500 million in February, then below 400 million in March and finally at 300 million in April. Facebook Gaming is dipping quite a lot faster than Twitch.
According to StreamElements CFO Jason Krebs, this isn’t anything to worry about. He said, “Based on what we are seeing across livestreaming platforms, viewing habits are starting to revert to what they were pre-pandemic as the world opens up again for travel, events, and gatherings. Even with the decline, so many creators, viewers and brands were exposed to the appeal of the medium that even the lowest month in the future will likely be above the highest month in the past before the pandemic started.”
Viewership By Category And Streamer
It was incredibly clear that the category ‘Just Chatting’ was the most popular one on Twitch. The category racked up 280 million hours watched throughout April 2022. Elden Ring on the other hand dipped all the way down to number nine overall while losing 70 percent of their viewership from March.
When it comes down to individual streamers, xQc continued to dominate viewership. He surpassed the 25 million hours watched mark to sit in first place on Twitch. To put it into perspective, the second-place streamer on Twitch is Gaules, though xQc is 10 million hours above them.
These streaming services are likely to bounce back up to their original numbers eventually. However, it is certainly something that they should keep an eye on. Could this trend continue throughout the year? Only time will tell.
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