The relaxation of the lockdown may have affected streaming platforms.
in a report of StreamLabsIt seems that popular streaming platforms are seeing a downward trend, and the lifting of pandemic lockdowns may be to blame.
Before vaccines made a dent in Covid-19 hospitalization rates, web services enjoyed an unprecedented wave of growth as lockdowns kept schools closed and offices empty. Some sites saw double or even triple-digit growth, but with the easing of blackout restrictions, it appears to have led to a decline in viewership on most major streaming platforms. StreamLabs also cited Tencent’s streaming competitor Trovo as a potential threat to Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Facebook, though its footprint remains minuscule.
Twitch managed to get some growth from the previous quarter, fueled by its non-gaming “Just Chatting” category. Despite the relaxation of lockdowns, total viewing hours did not decrease from the previous quarter, but decreased year over year by 8.06%, compared to the first quarter of 2021.
- Twitch still dominates the scene, accounting for 91.5% of all streaming hours and 76% of all streaming views.
- Twitch was the only platform to see quarterly growth, though it’s still down nearly 400 million hours of viewing since its lockdown peak.
- Twitch continues to see an overall decline in hours streamed, though StreamLabs believes the new Twitch Xbox integration may have contributed to an uptick this quarter.
- League of Legends and Valorant developer Riot is by far the most viewed game publisher, with 912 million viewing hours, followed by Rockstar with 556 million viewing hours.
- Just chatting, GTAV and League of Legends continue to dominate interest.
It will be interesting to see how user habits evolve as lockdowns continue to gradually be lifted. The competitiveness of the space prompted Microsoft to remove its own streaming service, Mixer, given that the service failed to see any significant traction in the first wave of bans, possibly a clear sign of disinterest on the part of users. Since then, Microsoft has sought to integrate Twitch more deeply into its services and programming.
_If you’re interested in streaming games from your Xbox, take a look at our capture card guide. _
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