Streamlabs’ Q3 report shows Facebook hit one billion hours watched, Twitch broke hours streamed records

Following the first quarter without Mixer in the picture, the streaming numbers have slowly started to settle across the remaining major platforms. Facebook Gaming surpassed one billion hours watched for the first time, according to a data report from Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet.

YouTube Gaming also experienced the most growth in terms of hours watched between July and September, increasing from 1.51 billion to 1.67 billion in that period, a 10.5 percent increase. In comparison, Twitch dropped around 377 million hours watched in Q3, while Facebook Gaming gained 71 million. 

Here’s the breakdown for all the major platforms in terms of hours watched following Q3 and how it compares to their Q2 numbers. 

• Twitch: 63.6 percent
  • 2.7 percent decrease
• YouTube Gaming: 22.5 percent
  • 2.8 percent increase
• Facebook Gaming: 14 percent
  • 1.4 percent increase

Twitch lost a large number of hours watched, but it did gain a good chunk of the market share when it comes to how many streamers use the platform since most of Mixer’s streamers transferred over to Twitch. Overall, the platform has grown in hours streamed by 14.5 percent, giving it a 91.1 percent market share on hours streamed. 

In total, Twitch had around 185 million more hours of content streamed to its platform in Q3 than Facebook and YouTube combined. That led to a 96 percent year-over-year increase from Q3 2019’s 105 million hours. 

Facebook Gaming didn’t see the massive growth that Twitch saw in terms of unique channels broadcasting on the platform, but Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet reported that it’s experienced increases for hours watched, hours streamed, and new channels following Mixer’s closure. It looks like Facebook partnering with Mixer during its shutdown did benefit the platform. 

YouTube Gaming grew in terms of its live viewing audience but wasn’t able to significantly increase the number of streamers using its platform.

League of Legends also reclaimed its top spot on the most-watched games in Q3 with more than 543 million hours watched in total. Just Chatting was the second most-watched category across all livestream platforms with 533 million hours watched.