YouTube and Kick are the only platforms to grow in audience in Q3 2023

While the world is closely watching Kick‘s battle against Twitch, the live streaming market saw a drop in its audience in the 3rd quarter of 2023 on practically all of its platforms. Only YouTube and Kick grew in the period.

YouTube sets new records for live broadcasts

YouTube, currently the main video platform on the planet, whether live broadcasts or not, reached a new historical record: in September alone, the Google platform achieved 3.19 billion hours watched in live broadcasts.

In the 3rd quarter of the year, the number reached 8.344 billion hours watched, an increase of 9.44% compared to the previous period.

If we analyze the numbers only for YouTube Gaming, that is, content specialized in games, the Google platform also shows growth.

In the 3rd quarter of 2023, YouTube Gaming gained an audience of 1.385 billion hours watched. In the previous period, the number was 1.379 billion.

Kick continues to grow

Focused on its dispute with Twitch, Kick continues to grow its audience, reaching a new level in the 3rd quarter of 2023, increasing by more than 100 million hours watched compared to the previous quarter.

According to data from the StreamsCharts website, Kick ended the months of July, August and September with a total of 296.85 million hours watched, an increase of 52.64% compared to the previous period.

The number, although still very small compared to the giants YouTube and Twitch, shows that Kick continues to grow, especially thanks to the millionaire signings of some of today’s biggest streamers.

Now, Kick is the 4th largest live streaming platform today, behind only YouTube, Twitch and NimoTV.

The fall of the live streaming market

If during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the live streaming market saw a real explosion in its audience, now, in the first post-pandemic periods, the audience continues to fall for most platforms.

Although the drop is not yet worrying, always hovering around less than 10% for the biggest platforms, this constant drop in audience could mean a change in live streaming consumption for the not-too-distant future.

Being the main live streaming platform for games today, Twitch, for example, observed a 0.51% drop in its audience in the 3rd quarter of 2023, ending the period with 5.161 billion hours watched, 4.103 billion of which were gamer content.

Gamohol