The year’s second quarter has now drawn to a close, and today, Streamlabs is releasing their Q2 2019 report on the live streaming industry. These quarterly reports track a variety of data and trends in streaming, from individual platform and game performance to audience trends, with data on Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube provided by Newzoo. Among the key takeaways from this new report is one particular major shift; for the first in over a year, Twitch views have actually declined.
Twitch Views are Declining: What the Q2 2019 Streamlabs Report Shows
Twitch has been the dominant streaming platform for years now, far ahead of both YouTube Live and Mixer, its only two noteworthy competitors. While both have grown in recent quarters, particularly YouTube, Twitch has remained far ahead. However, Q2 2019 marks the end of a year-long period of growth for Twitch, with Twitch views actually declining for the first time since Q1 of 2018. In that quarter, users watched 2,027 million hours of content on the site. That figure rose to 2,762 million by Q1 2019. However, the figure for Q2 shows that viewership has dropped to 2,706 million hours.
Overall, this is only a 2% decrease in performance, so it’s hardly a major blow to the platform. However, if it proves to be the start of a trend, it could grow into an issue for the service. In fact, viewing hours isn’t the only area which has declined. The number of hours streamed has actually declined more significantly; by around 10% from Q1 2019. Additionally, the number of new channels on Twitch this quarter was 4.8 million, 1 million fewer than in Q1. However, it’s not all bad news for Twitch. The average number of viewers per channel has actually increased by 9.47% (averaging 28.6 viewers per channel).
As Twitch falls into a slight decline, YouTube Gaming Live is on the rise. The number of hours watched on the competitor platform has risen by 10% from Q1 to Q2 to around 702 million hours. The number of hours streamed also rose by 4%, while the number of average concurrent viewers rose 9%. In fact, the platform still has the highest average viewer per channel figure, averaging 53 viewers per channel. While it’s unknown whether viewers are literally moving from Twitch to YouTube Gaming Live, the simultaneous decline and growth does suggest at least some shifting between platforms.
Mixer and the New Streaming Platform DLive
Q2 has also been a very good quarter for Mixer. While the platform remains in a clear third place, it did experience an explosive surge in growth, rising from 8.4 million hours watched in Q1 to 12 million in Q2. Year over year, Mixer’s hours watched figure has actually increased 357%. It may not be a serious threat to its two main competitors, but the site looks set to continue growth throughout the rest of 2019, especially if Twitch’s decline continues.
However, it looks as though Mixer’s third-place spot may actually have been usurped due to the growth of a new streaming platform; DLive. Setting itself apart through the use of blockchain technology, this platform hasn’t publicly shared statistics before. However, it partnered with Streamlabs to do so for their Q2 2019 report. The figures revealed suggest that DLive’s performance has actually surpassed that of Mixer. The platform’s hours watched figure for Q2 was 34.2 million hours; almost three times that of Mixer. Additionally, the average number of viewers per channel on DLive was 11, one ahead of Mixer’s 10.
The growth of DLive is very likely to be the result of high-profile streamers making use of the platform. PewDiePie now streams exclusively on DLive, and a Fortnite collaboration between PewDiePie and Ninja on the 7th of June prompted hundreds of thousands of viewers to tune in to DLive.
Mobile Live Streaming is on the Rise
While the various streaming platforms continue to grow or decline, Streamlabs also noted a rise in the number of streamers making use of mobile devices. In fact, mobile streaming has risen by 16% since Q1. The overall figure is now more than double the figure from this time last year. In March of 2018 the number of active mobile streamers was around 80,900. Now, that figure is over 479,000!
This increase is tied to the overall rise of “Just Chatting” streaming, which has overtaken many popular games to become the fourth most watched category on Twitch. The “Just Chatting” has now overtaken Dota 2, CS:GO, World of Warcraft, and many others. Only Fortnite, League of Legends, and GTA V remain ahead.
In their closing statement, Streamlabs noted that Fortnite, which has long propelled the growth of the industry, could soon have its role usurped; “Without a doubt, the live streaming industry is going through a period of change,” notes Streamlabs; “Fortnite propelled Twitch and the platform reached all-time highs because of it. Now that we are seeing growth for both decline, there is an opportunity for a new game to step in, become the next Fortnite and once again spur the growth of streaming platforms and the industry.”