New Spectator Sport: Twitch Leads the Pack in Live Video-Gaming

A new digital spectator sport has evolved. Live video-game streaming basically entails broadcasting whatever you’re playing on your device at home to an audience via a specific online platform. One of the most successful such sites to do this is the Amazon owned website Twitch, where you can watch gamers playing "League of Legends" or "Counter-Strike" and the like.

Facebook has just announced it wants to get in on the action and make it easier to live-stream certain video games on its site, by linking up with Blizzard Entertainment, which makes games like "Overwatch" or "World of Warcraft".

People spent more than 277 million hours tuning into Twitch's top games in May, which makes such a platform a very attractive business venture. "League of Legends" is by far the most watched game on Twitch, with more than 80 million hours of streaming watched.

Description

Leading gaming content on Twitch in May 2016

Download Chart
Most popular games on Twitch worldwide as of August 2026, by share of hours watched
Premium statistics
Most popular games on Twitch as of August 2026, by weekly number of hours watched (in millions)
Premium statistics
Number of hours watched on leading gaming live stream platforms worldwide in 4th quarter 2024, by platform (in millions)
Most popular games on Twitch worldwide in 2025 YTD, by views (in millions)
Leading gaming content on Twitch worldwide from January 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019, by hours watched (in millions)
Share of population in the United States who watch or play live streamed video games as of January 2021

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