Twitch Remains No. 1 Streaming Platform in 2019, League of Legends Eclipses Fortnite as Most Popular Game: Stream Elements

2019 was a great year for streaming, and when it comes to the Twitch platform, YouTube continues to rule the roost when rivals like Gaming and Rival come on the market. According to the State of Stream report for 2019 by Stream Elements, Twitch still earns 73 per cent of the streaming market, but this year saw a 2 per cent drop. League of Legends took the crown of the most popular sport on Twitch in terms of clocks, while Fortnite finished second in 2019 after topping the charts last year. TFU emerged as Twitch's top streamer in 2019, while older classics such as World of Viktron and Dungeons & Dragons showed revived interest.

The latest state of the stream report by Stream Elements says that the top four streaming platforms have registered steady growth in terms of viewership hours this year. Twitch's viewership grew 20 per cent to 9.34 billion hours, while Mixer and Facebook Gaming reported huge growth of 149 per cent and 210 per cent, respectively.

Overall, Twitch still received a share of the streaming market at a rate of 73% over 2019, a 2 per cent decrease from last year. The three major rivals grew at Twitch's expense, with YouTube Gaming now commanding 21 per cent market share, while Facebook Gaming and Mixer end up at 3 per cent market share each year.

Talking about streaming celebrities, Fortnite player Tfue was the No. 1 streamer on Twitch in 2019 with a viewership of 87.78 million. Esports Biggie Kaufman finished second (Twitch + Mixer Combined), followed by Shikhar 1g (Twitch Only), Ninja ((Twitch + Mixer Combined), and Asmongold (Twitch Only). Sadiqam was the top female streamer on Twitch in 2019, Which was trailing. Amaranth, and by Hafu.

League of Legends posted a 7 per cent increase in audience hours in 2019, making it the top game on Twitch this year with an audience of over 990 million hours. Fortnite was in second place after topping the charts last year, while Just Chatting was in third place. GTA 5 saw 277 per cent annual growth and ranked fourth, while DOTA 2 was ranked fifth.

When it comes to the new game released in 2019, Apex Legends led the pack, followed by Teamfight Tactics, Sequeira: Shadows Die Twice, Death Stranding and Anthem. Simply Chatting, a live vlogging category that is not technically a game, saw a significant 44 per cent increase on a platform that caters primarily to gaming.

A surprising trend in the streaming world this year was increasing interest in classics. Dungeons and Dragons saw a 26 per cent increase in audience hours in 2019, while the launch of the World of Warcraft classic also aroused revived interest in the franchise. Another increase that was a huge growth spike was GTA 5, with audience hours up 277 per cent on a YoY basis.