On Monday, Fortnite’s in-game event launching Chapter 2 Season 3 generated an enormous audience across North American streaming platforms. This week, Stream Hatchet analyzed this ground-breaking event and compared viewership to the “Black Hole”, Fortnite’s previous in-game event.

• “The Device Event” generated a peak audience almost twice as high as the “Black Hole” event that launched Fortnite Chapter 2 for a total increase of 67%.
• YouTube’s peak audience market share grew 7% while Twitch’s dropped 6% compared to the “Black Hole” event. YouTube continues to pull in extremely high peak audiences for Fortnite events.
• The global climate could be playing a role in the increased audience as alternative entertainment options are limited.

Fortnite’s “The Device” Event attracts nearly 2X the Peak Viewers as the “Black Hole” Event was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

While Riot Games has long been associated as the publisher behind League of Legends, it has committed to expanding its reach through new titles including Team Fight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra & Valorant. With the release of new titles, Riot has continued to generate significant audiences for its IP on general livestreams and esports programs. This week, Stream Hatchet investigates market share of Riot Games IP on Twitch.

• The impact of Valorant: In April 2020, Riot Games was able to obtain 28% of the total watched hours of content on Twitch. This coincides with the beta release of the new FPS title, Valorant, where beta keys were only available through Twitch view drops.
• Understanding the average: Across the past six months, Riot IP represents approximately 15% of the total Twitch market share. They have increased their share since Dec. 2019 by seven points.

For more data and analytics to optimize strategy and measurement in video game streaming, visit us online at: www.StreamHatchet.com

Riot Games Gains 28% of Twitch Market Share was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One of the many premier esports properties in EMEA is the League of Legends European Championship (LEC). Over the past three years, Riot Games has worked to rebrand the property and build it into an independent league from its North American counterpart including a new brand identity. This week, Stream Hatchet investigates audience growth related to the LEC:

• From 2018 to 2020, LEC Viewers have watched 46% more hours of esports content: While the ’18 — ’19 increase was greater than the ’19 — ’20, Riot Games has experienced a significant increase in watch time across the two year period.

For more insights on esports viewership, visit us online at: www.StreamHatchet.com

LEC Grows 46% across 3 years was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

While most marketers are familiar with the concept of “what an esports is”, understanding trends related to specific video game genres are less accessible. For example, while Battle Royale may be the most popular game genre to watch on platforms like Twitch, BR esports audiences are dwarfed by more popular game genres. This week, Stream Hatchet investigates the year to date esports market share of the top video game genres:

• This year, 55% of the total esports hours watched came from MOBA Games: It’s no surprise that the MOBA genre continues to dominate the esports market. Games like League of Legends have consistently drawn audiences across multiple streaming platforms.
• Battle-Royale represents less than 3% of the total esports market share: While Fortnite continues to attract massive audiences around in-game events like the Travis Scott concert, its esports audiences have lagged. As a result, the genre has failed to gain significant market share compared to the broader FPS category.

For more insights and market analysis, visit our website: StreamHatchet.com

MOBAs rep 55% of Esports Hours Watched was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Mobile Gaming is often an underlooked sector of the esports and video game streaming market. While it still represents a fraction of streaming content, the Mobile Games industry accounts for 55% of the Video Game Industries revenue. Stream Hatchet enables business analysts to uncover market trends related to mobile gaming live streams across the leading distributor platforms. This week, we focus on the leading distributors of Mobile Gaming live streams:

• Facebook emerges as the market leader: In Q1 2020, 55% of the top Mobile Gaming Live streams were watched on Facebook Gaming.
• YouTube takes a close second: Even without Video On Demand Hours Watched, YouTube Gaming live streams account for 43% of the market.
• Twitch falls behind in mobile: While Twitch remains the market leader in broader live streaming (65% of the total live streaming market), they only represent 2% of the mobile game streaming audience.

For more insights on how the Video Game Streaming industry is being impacted by COVID, be sure to visit this link and download our COVID streaming report.

55% of Mobile Gaming Live Streams are watched on Facebook Gaming was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

While Twitch and YouTube often garner most of the attention when it comes to streaming platforms, Facebook has been slowly creating its own path. On the other hand, Mixer generated a lot of buzz around signing Ninja and Shroud but it hasn’t led to any sustainable viewership. This week, Stream Hatchet analyzes the year-over-year growth of both Facebook and Mixer as the two platforms are trending in different directions.

• While Facebook has seen an increase of 345% in total hours watched since April 2019, Mixer has declined 26% over the same period.
• Facebook dominates mobile viewership which is a large reason for their success both in North America and internationally as LATAM and APAC consume substantial mobile game content.
• With the announcement of Facebook’s new gaming app launching soon, the company is focused on stealing more market share from Twitch and YouTube. Mobile game viewership will likely be the starting point but expect the strategy to broaden as Facebook continues to generate more viewership.

For more information on platform viewership and growth, please contact sales@streamhatchet.com or visit www.streamhatchet.com.

YoY Growth: Facebook vs. Mixer was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As mobile gaming continues to grow both domestically in North America as well as more rapidly internationally, PUBG and PUBG Mobile have been the focal point. PUBG was once leading viewership on Twitch but has since fallen by the wayside to newer titles. However, PUBG Mobile is not only the leading mobile game on Twitch, but on YouTube and Facebook as well. This week, Stream Hatchet compares the viewership of PUBG and PUBG Mobile as the mobile gaming industry continues to scale.

• PUBG Mobile generated 52% more total hours watched and 79% more esports hours watched than PUBG.
• With 26 tournaments, PUBG was responsible for 17.4M less hours watched compared to PUBG Mobile with 21 tournaments.
• PUBG averaged 851k hours watched per esports tournament while PUBG Mobile averaged 1.89M over the sampled period.

For more information on PUBG, PUBG Mobile, and game streaming trends, please contact us at sales@streamhatchet.com or visit www.streamhatchet.com.

PUBG Mobile surpassing sister title was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As streaming has seen substantial growth this year, publishers have been battling for larger shares of the market. Game launches and industry trends shift the standings but which publisher has had the lion’s share as of late? This week, Stream Hatchet investigates week-over-week cross-platform hours watched of the top video game publishers since the start of the year.

• The sampled publishers grew a combined 71% in hours watched from January 1 — March 31.
• Riot Games had the biggest share in March by generating over 165 million hours watched across Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, and Facebook.
• Activision grew their share by about 322% from February to March largely due to the success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s launch of Warzone.

Publisher Growth in Q1 2020 was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Video game genres rise and fall as new trends or externalities run through the industry. Over the past few months, there has been a growing interest for simulated racing games.

Some of the genre’s tournaments even reached over 60k peak viewers. As various games jockey for market share of the simulated racing trend, Stream Hatchet investigates month-over-month growth of hours watched across several titles.

• While most of the sampled Racing Simulator games increased in hours watched since the beginning of the year, F1 2019 had the highest growth at a rate of 1,061%.
• iRacing generated the most hours watched over the last three months out of the sampled games at 2.95 million.
• The lack of traditional televised racing due to COVID-19 is likely playing a large role in simulated racing interest, especially over the past few weeks.

For more information regarding simulated racing and other video game trends, please visit www.streamhatcet.com or contact sales@streamhatchet.com.

eRacing Trends in 2020 was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

With entertainment options limited due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the world has turned to new mediums to pass the time during the pandemic. Live streaming is one of the few industries thriving off of social distancing as platforms like Twitch are attracting larger audiences.

This week, Stream Hatchet investigates the impact of COVID-19 related streams on the four major North American game streaming platforms to analyze how the virus has impacted live streaming viewership.

• Stream Titles containing COVID-19 keywords like “COVID,” “Corona,” “Virus,” or “Pandemic” have seen an 133k% increase in hours watched since Dec. 30, 2019.
• In just one week, the number of unique channels streaming with COVID-19 related titles increased 542% from the week of March 2 to the week of March 15.
• The week of March 16 has already generated almost 3 million hours watched of COVID-19 titled streams as the trend appears to continue to climb.

Please visit www.streamhatchet.com for more information regarding the growth of live streaming amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Stream Hatchet also wishes everyone good health and safety during these difficult times.

COVID-19 Live Streams was originally published in Stream Hatchet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.