Fortnite Twitch Viewership Is Declining, Claims Report

Twitch Users Watched 9.36 Billion Hours of Content in 2018, Fortnite Experiences Drop in Viewership

February 3, 2019

Streamer platform, StreamElements, has released its 2018 industry report that offers a closer look at Twitch and YouTube trends over the past year. The report reveals that Twitch viewers watched 9.36 billion hours of content in 2018, a growth of 25 percent year-on-year.

YouTube Live boasts only a fraction of this number. However, with 2.31 billion hours of content watched, it saw a growth of 104 percent since 2017.

We reported back in December that Fortnite was Twitch’s most-watched game in 2018. StreamElements claims that although the Epic title is the king of live streaming, it’s beginning to lose viewership.

“Even though some mocked us, the numbers don’t lie – Fortnite’s downward trend in hours viewed didn’t stop in Q4, in fact, it actually picked up steam, losing nearly 15 percent of its viewership from ‘peak Fortnite‘ back in Q2 2018,” wrote Marketing Manager, Adam Yosilewitz.

Fortnite rival PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds also saw a decrease in the number of hours watched, but it remains one of Twitch’s top five most-watched games.

The biggest winners of 2018, all of which saw a viewership increase in millions, include:

League of Legends (+447 million hours watched)
World of Warcraft (+126 million)
Overwatch (+63 million)
Grand Theft Auto V (+25 million)
Dota 2 (+25 million)

SteamElements’ report cautions against dismissing YouTube Live. The platform doesn’t boast Twitch-style numbers but in 2018 alone, it gained nearly as many viewing hours as Twitch (506 million vs 414 million).

Trailing far behind Twitch and YouTube Live is Microsoft’s Mixer with 167.96 million hours watched. However, the platform posted the highest growth of 179 percent since 2017.

If you’re interested in the full report, head over to StreamElements’ website.

[Source: VentureBeat]