StreamElements: Twitch viewership is up as streamers play with one-armed bandits

StreamElements released its monthly report for May, revealing the state of streaming for last month. According to the reports, both Twitch and Facebook Gaming showed a slight upturn in viewership numbers. New streamers and stream categories are also disrupting the year’s trends.

The report gets its data from Rainmaker.gg, StreamElements’ analytics partner. While both Twitch and Facebook Gaming have seen declines in viewership numbers since the beginning of the year, this month they saw slight increase. Twitch went from 1.782 billion hours watched in April to 1.808 billion hours watched, and Facebook Gaming went from 335 million to 350 million hours.

Jason Krebs, StreamElements’ CBO, said in a statement, “In recent months, the hours watched of livestreamed content has declined as the world opened back up. Yet even at its lowest point this year, viewership has remained high above its pre-pandemic peak and established the medium as an essential vehicle for brands looking to connect with younger audiences. We are now witnessing a slight upturn in viewership which could signal a new baseline moving forward.”

According to the data on streaming categories, one particular genre has become more popular this month: Slots. Rainmaker says that watching slots has “become a huge meta on Twitch,” which has pushed the one-armed bandits into the top 10 of the site’s categories. It just edges out Call of Duty: Warzone to get 9th place. Naturally, these are virtual slots games, not actual slot machines — which is a pity.