Stream Hatchet, a subsidiary of Game Square, published its Q2 live streaming report, which noted YouTube livestreams hit an all-time high, while Twitch viewing declined.
The Live Streaming Trends Report showed the total hours watched hit over 9 billion in Q2 2025, up 5% year-over-year. This was the highest quarterly viewing figures seen since 2021.
Nintendo’s announcement of the Switch 2 on its official Japanese YouTube channel was the most watched moment of the quarter, with 3.3 million peak concurrent viewers.
YouTube Gaming accounted for 2.2 billion hours of the total, a new record for the platform. Twitch still led the way with 54% of the market share, but that was a 4.6% drop from Q2 last year.
Platforms Rival Twitch’s Market Dominance
Twitch still had over double the viewing figures of YouTube at 4.64 billion hours, but that marks a drop in viewing hours for the fourth successive quarter.
The shutdown of the site in South Korea led to the creation of alternative platforms, such as Chzzk. Hours watched on Chzzk grew to 525 million hours, a 37% increase from Q2 last year.
Kick also grew substantially, more than doubling its hours of viewing. The platform’s market share increased to 11%, from 5.5% last year. Breakout creators like Maherco surged in popularity, moving to the top spot in Kick’s rankings during Q2.
Ten creators recorded over 1 million hours watched on Kick this quarter despite having no viewership on the platform in Q2 2024.
The platform also grew for non-gaming streams with online slots and casino categories doubling viewing figures year-on-year.
Esports Thriving Despite Less Tournaments
Viewership on Esports grew 6% to 729 million hours, despite a 37% drop in the number of tournaments. The split between official channels and creator co‑streams was even, indicating the growing popularity of creator‑led coverage and secondary commentary beyond standard broadcasts.
Justin Kenna, CEO of GameSquare, commented on the trends, stating, “The Q2 2025 report from Stream Hatchet underscores the continued growth of live streaming as a dominant force in media consumption.”
“These insights highlight how audiences are shifting toward interactive, creator-led content experiences that offer greater engagement than traditional formats.”
Esports viewing is expected to grow further in the future, and it was announced this week that the first Olympic Esports Games will be hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2027.
Riyadh is currently hosting the Esports World Cup (EWC), which is attracting a record number of viewers. The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (CoD) event reached 4.16 million hours of views, with a peak of 268,927 viewers. This is 56% more hours and a 92% higher peak than CoD at EWC 2024.
The League of Legends Grand Final, meanwhile, recorded 1.2 million viewers at its peak, 80,000 more than last year. Honor of Kings also saw a record number of viewers tune in for its final, with a peak of 653,309 in the final. The total hours watched exceeded 3 million across 10 days, ranking it fourth by peak in the overall EWC competition lineup.
Figures for the year look set to grow again after increasing for the first time since 2021 last year. Stream Hatchet reported that a total of 32.5 billion hours were watched last year, a 12% increase compared to 2023.
