34 Live Streaming Statistics (2026 Data + Trends)

Looking for the latest live streaming statistics? I’ve got you covered.

In this post, I’ll be sharing a bunch of interesting facts and figures about live streaming, pulled from all the latest industry reports.

These stats will shed light on the current state of the live streaming industry, including the size and shape of the market, the platforms and streamers leading the pack, the audiences who watch live content, and more.

Let’s start with our top picks…

Live streaming usage statistics

Let’s start by looking at some general live streaming statistics that reveal how many people watch live streams across the world, and how viewership has changed over time…

1. 28.5% of internet users now watch live streams

Over the last few years, live streaming has become more mainstream. Around 28.5% of internet users reported watching a live stream weekly at the end of last year. 

That figure is up by +0.8% quarter-over-quarter. However, it’s down from its peak of 30.4% in Q3 2021, when livestream viewership was at its highest due to the pandemic.

Source: Wistia, Statista¹, Statista²

2. 22.7% of people primarily use social media to watch live streams

In their latest annual report, We Are Social looked at data from a survey that asked social media users aged 16-64 what their primary reasons for using social media were.

According to the results, around 22.7% (almost a quarter) of social media users primarily use social to watch live streams—making it the ninth most popular response. It makes sense to include live streams in your social media marketing strategy to cater to these users, alongside other social media post ideas.

In comparison, 49.5% primarily use social media to keep in touch with family and friends (the number one response).

Note: You can find more insights about the ways users use social media in my roundup of social media statistics.

Source: We Are Social

3. Viewers watched 8.5 billion hours of live stream content this quarter…

The latest quarterly data we have at the time of writing comes from Q2 2024.

During that quarter, viewers watched a combined total of 8.5 billion hours of live content across all streaming platforms.  That’s over 970,000 years’ worth of live streams!

Source: Stream Hatchet

4. …That’s up by 10% year-over-year

The 8.5 billion watch hours of live stream content represents an increase of around 10% YOU. However, it’s still down from its peak of 9.8 billion watch hours in a single quarter, which was reached in 2021 at the height of the pandemic.

Source: Stream Hatchet

5. Viewers watched 654 million hours of live-streamed esports content this quarter

live streams of esports—organized gaming tournaments and competitions—often bring in a large number of viewers. These types of streams accounted for 654 million of the 8.5 billion hours watched this quarter.

Source: Stream Hatchet

6. The average daily concurrent live stream viewership is over 3 – 3.6 million

At any one point, over 3 million people are watching live streams across Twitch and YouTube Gaming alone. That figure varies depending on the season and whether it’s weekend or weekdays, with peak times reaching the top end of the scale.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t even factor in all the people watching live streams on other platforms like Kick, TikTok Live, Facebook Live, and Rumble. If we did factor those in, the figure may be much higher.

Source: Stream Hatchet

7. 43 years’ worth of live stream content is watched every minute

Every single minute, live video viewers all over the world watch a combined total of 43 years worth of content. That includes 48,000 hours of live stream content viewed per minute on Twitch alone.

Source: Statista⁵

8. 42.8% of Gen Z internet users in the US watch live streams

It’s clear from the statistics that live streams are much more popular amongst younger audiences.

42.8% of surveyed social media users in the Gen Z demographic said they watch live streams, which is significantly higher than the general population.

Source: Statista³

9. 40% of US adults aged 55+ say they’ve never watched a live stream 

While live streaming has become increasingly popular amongst younger internet users, almost half of all those in the 55+ age range have still never seen a single live stream. What’s more, 17% of those aged 34-54 also have never seen a live stream.

Source: Statista⁴

Live streaming platform statistics

Next, let’s take a look at some statistics that tell us more about the different live streaming services & platforms, including their market share.

10. Twitch is the most popular live streaming platform (with a 60.3% market share)

Despite only being the 16th most popular social media platform, Twitch is by far the most popular platform for live streaming with a 60%+ market share. Of the 8.5 billion hours of live stream content that audiences tuned in for this quarter, 5.1 billion of those watch hours happened on Twitch.

Clearly, then, Twitch still dominates the live streaming space despite growing competition from platforms like YouTube Live, Kick, and Rumble. 

That said, it’s worth noting that Twitch’s market share has fallen year over year. Last year, it accounted for 70% of watch hours, down to 60% this year—a significant plummet. This suggests that Twitch’s dominance may be weakening.

Source: Stream Hatchet

11. YouTube Gaming is the second most popular live streaming platform (with a 23% market share)

YouTube Gaming live streams accounted for 2 billion watch hours this quarter, which is around 23% of total live stream watch hours. This makes YouTube the second top live streaming platform after Twitch.

Interestingly, though, there are signs YouTube may be beginning to close that gap. Its market share of live stream watch hours is up from 17% last year, an increase of +6% YOY. In the same period, Twitch’s share dropped by -10%.

Source: Stream Hatchet

12. Kick is the third most popular live streaming platform (with a 5.5% market share)

Kick is a new live streaming platform that exploded onto the scene in 2022—over a decade after Twitch and YouTube Live.

Despite their head start, Kick has been closing the gap with these rival platforms and now accounts for around 5.5% of live streaming watch hours (463 million watch hours in this quarter).

After Kick, AfreecaTV ranks fourth with a 3.4% market share and 290 million watch hours, and South Korean platform Chzzk ranks fifth with a 2.1% market share and 177 million watch hours.  Other platforms collectively accounted for the remaining 5.3% with 451 million watch hours.

Source: Stream Hatchet

13. Facebook Live has a live streaming market share of <1%

A while back, Facebook threw its hat into the live video streaming ring and began to invest in signing popular streamers.

Unfortunately, it looks like those efforts didn’t pay off, as Facebook Live no longer even ranks in the top five live streaming platforms, with a share of less than 1% of watch hours. 

Source: Stream Hatchet

14. Rumble is one of the fastest growing live streaming platforms

Rumble was only the 7th most watched live streaming platform this quarter by watch hours, but it’s one of the fastest growing platforms, having increased its market share rapidly.

Interestingly, unlike other platforms, Rumble’s viewership is heavily concentrated among a handful of streamers. The top 10 channels account for over half of all viewership on the platform. Most of these are talk shows or news broadcasts in the political niche.

Source: Stream Hatchet

15. Kick offers the most generous revenue share of any live streaming platform

Creators on Kick keep 95% of their subscription revenue. This makes it the platform with the most generous subscription revenue share.

In comparison, creators only keep 50% of their subscription revenues on Twitch, or 70% if they’re eligible for the Partner Plus Program. Likewise, creators keep between 50% and 70% of their earnings on YouTube, depending on revenue source.

The only other platform that has offered a larger share of subscription revenue than Kick is Rumble, which lets creators keep 100% of their earnings from monthly subscription badges. However, that was only a temporary offer that applied until the end of 2023 – it’s not clear what Rumble’s current revenue share is.

Source: Statista¹¹

16. Twitch has around 2.3 million average concurrent viewers…

According to the latest 7-day average on TwitchTracker, there are around 2.3 million people watching live streams on Twitch at any one moment. 

What’s more, there are, on average, around 91,400 creators that are live on Twitch concurrently.

So, some quick math tells us that there are around 25 viewers for every live stream on Twitch at any given time.

Source: TwitchTracker

17. There are around 7.4 million active streamers on Twitch

According to TwitchTracker, there were around 7.4 million active streamers on Twitch last month at the time of writing (July 2024). That gives some indication as to just how competitive the live streaming market is. 

Many of those millions of streamers have little to no viewers—it’s tough to break through the noise and grow an audience.

Source: TwitchTracker

Live streaming market statistics

Here are a couple of statistics that tell us more about how much the live streaming market is worth in dollars and cents.

18. The live streaming market was estimated at over $60.63B last year…

According to projections by CMI, the live streaming market was supposed to reach that valuation last year (2023). Keep in mind, though, that this is just one valuation and other estimations vary.

Source: CMI

19. …and is expected to reach $256.56B by 2032

Experts see plenty of room for growth in the live streaming market, as the valuation is expected to increase at a CAGR of 28% from 2023 to 2032. By then, it’ll be worth an eye-watering USD 256.56 billion.

Source: CMI

Live streamer statistics

How many live streamers are there? And who are the most popular streamers currently? Let’s look at some more live streaming statistics to find out.

20. There are an estimated 12.3 million active live streamers across all platforms

There are no reliable figures out there that tell us the total number of live streamers in the world. The best we have to go off is data from TwitchTracker, which tells us there are 7.4 million active live streamers on Twitch. 

Given that Twitch has roughly 60.4% of the market share, we can extrapolate from that to estimate that there are around 12.3 million active live streamers in total across all platforms. 

Keep in mind, though, that this is just a rough estimate. The actual number of live streamers may be significantly lower or higher.

Source: TwitchTracker, Adam Connell

21. The top 1% of live streamers account for 80% of all hours watched

What’s more, the top 5% of live streamers account for 86% of all hours watched, the top 0.01% account for 33% of all hours watched, and the top 0.1% account for 61% of all hours watched. 

Evid