Twitch is the biggest livestreaming platform in the world. But while it’s the gathering place for some of the world’s biggest creators and their millions of fans, it’s not profitable–and right now, employees are worried owner Amazon will let it become a “zombie brand,” abandoned without resources for future development (and with more rounds of potential layoffs chipping away at its staff).
We know all this because of internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, but now, new information is giving us more context about why Amazon executives might be taking a dismal view of Twitch.
Data from both Stream Hatchet and Streams Charts shows Twitch losing significant market share in Q2 2024 to competitors like Kick and YouTube–and we think Twitch’s update policy on simulcasting might have something to do with it.
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Numbers across both data analysis companies differ slightly, but they both agree Twitch lost between 10 and 11% of its market share over the last three months, with market share measured in hours watched. Streams Charts says it fell from 5.5 billion hours watched in Q2 2023 to 4.8 billion in Q2 2024, an 11.8% drop, while Stream Hatchet pegged the drop at around 9.7%, and gave Twitch 5.1 billion hours watched.
Either way, the drop is significant. It’s partially explained by a typical slowdown in hours watched after the holiday/New Year peak, but the more important explanation is that YouTube Live and Kick have both snapped up an extra 5%+ of market share each. YouTube grew from 17% of market share last year to 23% this year, with 23.4 billion hours watched in Q2 2024, while Kick grew 5.5%, to 462 million hours watched (Stream Hatchet).
Why have YouTube and Kick picked up? We think a major factor could be Twitch deciding to end its ban on simulcasting. At the end of last year, for the first time in its existence, it agreed to allow creators to stream across multiple platforms simultaneously. So they could begin a stream on Twitch, but also boost that stream out to YouTube, Kick, and any other competitor they wanted, engaging audiences on their home platforms instead of forcing them to come to Twitch.
“We truly believe that Twitch is the best service to be a live, interactive creator, and we want to give streamers more freedom in just how they want to build their communities,” Jeremy Forrester, Twitch’s VP of community product, said at the time.
In giving streamers that freedom–which was much asked for and a positive gesture after a year of tumultuous policy decisions put many creators on edge–Twitch may have to contend with this drop in market share as a sacrifice.
Streams Charts agrees with our analysis, writing, “These rules took effect at the end of February and noticeably impacted Twitch’s viewership in the second quarter, compared to a lesser effect in the first quarter.”
(What we’d really like is some data on how many Twitch streamers are simulcasting, but as of right now, that’s not available.)
Streams Charts points out that YouTube Gaming accounted for a sizable chunk of YouTube Live’s growth, growing from from 1.75 billion to nearly 2.4 billion hours watched year-over-year, but also said entertainment and news & politics saw jumps, too. It mentioned as well that YouTube continues to be a challenger for network television, which means more people tuning in on their living room TVs looking for news or entertainment content may be tempted to watch a stream.
As for Kick, it’s got creators like xQc spending a lot of time there, and is still a relatively new platform branding itself as the edgy, wild west alternative to Twitch. It’s seen a 163% jump in viewership year-over-year, according to Stream Hatchet.
In the end, Twitch is still the biggest dog in town. But it has to continue improving for streamers to keep choosing it as their home, and that’s tough when Amazon keeps culling its workforce.
