- Twitch, owned by Amazon saw a fall in their viewership in 2019 while Facebook Gaming Market Share rose by 210 percent.
In a warning shot at Twitch from Amazon.com Inc.— long the leader of sites where people watch others play games— Facebook Gaming grew the fastest among such networks in the viewed hours watched in December.
The market share of Facebook Inc. channel rose to 8.5 percent of all streaming hours viewed last month, up from 3.1 percent in December 2018, according to a StreamElements and Arsenal.gg survey. Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube Gaming and Microsoft Corp.’s Mixer also slightly boosted their shares. While it lost market share, according to the study Twitch boosted its total hours watched last month as its nongaming content gained momentum.
“By 2021 Facebook will become a major challenger in this group,” said StreamElements chief executive Doron Nir to Bloomberg, which provides streamers with resources. “We have a chance at becoming No. 1 or No. 2 in this category in a few years.” Twitch’s share of watched hours fell from 67.1 percent in December 2018 to 61 percent, the report found.
A nongame category also became the most common among the hours watched for the first time on Twitch last month. According to the study, only Chatting, which includes content ranging from social commentary to video workout, was more common than content related to games such as League of Legends and Fortnite.
“It’s really more of an increase in content that’s just nongaming,” Nir said. “In general, what it means for live streaming is that we only see the tip of the iceberg. There are a vast number of additional categories that will arise and expand. Just talking is the most basic form, really.”
Twitch remains by far the biggest player in-game streaming, at least among western services. But despite viewing hours growing year-over-year from 715.6 million to 728 million, Twitch’s market share fell from 67.1 to 61 percent. These days it might be feeling a little more the pressure of the market. This week’s details revealed ad revenue for Twitch is not growing as fast as it had hoped.
YouTube Gaming is the second-biggest game streaming service after Twitch, but it had nearly the same market share as at the end of 2018 (it was only 0.4% up to 27.9%).
The report suggests that the growth of Facebook Gaming is largely due to existing streamers that build their following, and new faces that attract large numbers.
On average, last year, Facebook Gaming streamers broadcast 63 percent more hours than in 2018, which also helped to improve visitor numbers.
Source- Bloomberg News
