The state of streaming for the previous month was revealed in StreamElements’ May monthly report. According to the reports, viewership numbers on Twitch and Facebook Gaming both slightly increased. The trends of the year are also being disrupted by new streamers and stream categories.
The analytics partner of StreamElements, Rainmaker.gg, provided the data for the report. Although viewership numbers on Twitch and Facebook Gaming have decreased since the start of the year, they slightly increased this month. Twitch saw an increase in viewership from 1.782 billion hours in April to 1.808 billion hours, and Facebook Gaming saw a rise in viewership from 335 million to 350 million hours.
The number of hours watched of livestreamed content has decreased recently, according to Jason Krebs, CBO of StreamElements, as the world has become more open. However, viewership has consistently outperformed its pre-pandemic peak even at this year’s lowest point, solidifying the medium as a vital tool for businesses looking to engage younger audiences. They are currently observing a very slight increase in viewership, which might indicate a new baseline going forward.
One genre in particular has grown in popularity this month, per the data on streaming categories: slots. According to Rainmaker, playing slots has “become a huge meta on Twitch,” pushing one-armed bandits into the top 10 categories on the website.
It barely beats Call of Duty: Warzone for ninth place. It’s unfortunate that these are virtual slot machine games rather than actual slot machines.