Twitch viewership flat in July, but new faces and games rise | StreamElements State of the Stream

StreamElement’s latest State of the Stream report featuring Rainmaker.gg data shows that Twitch viewers watched 1.777 billion hours in July. While this is up 4% compared to June’s monthly total, this is largely due to the extra day.

Daily hours watched was flat in July, increasing by less than 1% to 57.3 million from June’s 56.9 million. However, there is an overall upward trend since March. Average hours watched per day have increased by 4% during this period.

“Setting a new streak, Twitch’s daily hours watched continued to climb since March with its monthly hours reaching a peak during the same period. Since this is the first time July had more viewership than May in the past four years, it could signal that Twitch has regained the footing it lost when the quarantine boom ended,” said Or Perry, cofounder of StreamElements.

Top Twitch Creators in July

As for top channels, ibai easily secured the top spot. His La Velada del Año 3 boxing event set a new peak viewership record on Twitch with 3.4 million viewership watching simultaneously. This event plus ibai’s regular streams earned him 29 million hours watched in July.

Overall, the eight of the top 10 most watched channels were non-English speaking creators. While English remains the most watched language on the platform, these creators show Twitch is becoming more international.

Notably, xQc did not make the top 10 as he was splitting time between Twitch and Kick. Additionally, Kai Cenat earned the fifth spot on this list. Given his recent legal trouble, it’s unclear how this will impact his viewership in the future.

Top Twitch categories in July

While Twitch’s top categories remained relatively consistent in July, five titles increased their viewership by 30% or more. Some of this increase is likely due to Diablo IV falling out of the top 10 and streamers returning to familiar titles.

Grand Theft Auto V saw the highest gains, growing by 55% to 139 million hours watched last month. All three top of the most watched Japanese streamers — FPS_Shaka, Darumaisgod and Stylishnoob4 — all streamed the Rockstar Games title.

Riot Games’ TeamFight Tactics also saw major gains, growing 40% since June. The ongoing Soul Fighter event and its accompanying Soul Brawl mode gave streamers new content to explore with their audience. This is likely welcome news to Riot who plan to invest more into events for the auto-battler.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 and Apex Legends all benefitted from major esports tournaments. For CS:GO, the BLAST Premier Fall 2023 tournament boosted viewership. Dota 2’s Bali Major 2023 and the Riyadh Masters 2023 at the Gamers8 festival accounted for the vast majority of the title’s July viewership. Similarly, the 2023’s Apex Legends Global Series Split 2 Playoffs and regional Last Chance Qualifiers contributed to the title’s viewership growth.