Facebook Gaming surpasses YouTube Gaming in total hours watched, Twitch controls 70 percent of the streaming market

This was also the first time Twitch has seen a loss in unique streamers on its platform.
Images via Facebook and Twitch | Remix by Cale Michael

Major streaming platforms have started taking some hits in terms of viewer metrics after a long period of consistent growth. Facebook Gaming was the only major competitor that saw a consistent increase in hours watched from July to September, according to the latest report from Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet. 

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That growth has finally pushed Facebook Gaming over YouTube Gaming in hours watched for Q3, hitting 1.29 billion hours compared to YouTube’s 1.13 billion. 

Image via Streamlabs

Meanwhile, Twitch continued to dominate the market in Q3, holding 70.5 percent of all content watched in the livestreaming space with 5.79 billion hours watched. Likewise, Twitch also dwarfs Facebook and YouTube in terms of total hours streamed at 222.9 million hours, compared to 17.1 million from Facebook and just 8.4 million hours from YouTube, which was actually an 8.3-percent decrease from Q2. 

Even though that total is still massive, Twitch saw a total decrease of 11 percent from 6.51 billion hours watched in Q2. But year-over-year, Twitch still had a 22-percent increase in hours watched compared to Q3 last year. 

Another notable place Twitch lost market share was in the number of unique channels that streamed on the platform. It was only a slight drop off at 10.4 million in Q3 2021 compared to 10.6 million unique channels last year, which is the first time the platform has seen a decrease year-over-year in that area, showing that more streamers are taking their talents elsewhere more frequently. 

Image via Streamlabs

In specific areas, Just Chatting was the most-watched category on Twitch in Q3 2021 at 707.5 million hours watched, though Grand Theft Auto V was close behind at 656.32 million. League of Legends finished third at 442.57 million hours watched. VALORANT Masters was the top esports event for Q3 with 31.7 million hours watched, followed by ESL Pro League XIV at 28 million hours and the LCK at 25.2 million hours. 

Tied to that, Riot Games dominated the publisher rankings, pulling in 772.3 million hours watched. You can read a full breakdown of the Q3 streaming industry on the official Streamlabs blog.


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Author
Cale Michael
Lead Staff Writer for Dota 2, the FGC, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and more who has been writing for Dot Esports since 2018. Graduated with a degree in Journalism from Oklahoma Christian University and also previously covered the NBA. You can usually find him writing, reading, or watching an FGC tournament.