Streamers are spreading across several platforms
Live-streaming viewers used to gather mostly on Twitch. Now they are spread across YouTube, TikTok, newer rivals such as Kick, and local services in countries like South Korea. Any one platform shows only part of the picture, and share charts can mislead.
Where it stands
Twitch is still the biggest platform for gaming streams, but across all live streaming YouTube Live and TikTok are now larger, and Twitch has lost ground each year. Streamers who broadcast on several platforms at once still spend most of their hours on Twitch. The money is moving too. YouTube gaming creators now earn more per brand deal than Twitch streamers, so the biggest gaming platform no longer pays best.
- Twitch
- YouTube Gaming
- Kick
Twitch still leads the three platforms shown, but its hours fall each year while YouTube Gaming and Kick grow. The chart excludes TikTok, which Stream Hatchet began counting in 2026 and which is now larger than all three combined.
SourceStream Hatchet, 2024 yearly live streaming trends report (free, behind a registration form)
| Year | Twitch | YouTube Gaming | Kick |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 21,700 | 4,800 | 725 |
| 2024 | 21,100 | 7,900 | 2,000 |
| 2025 | 19,200 | 8,800 | 4,500 |
Timeline
2021
Twitch hits its peak
Twitch hits its peak, with 24.3 billion hours watched, up from 11 billion in 2019.
2024
Twitch leaves Korea, and Chzzk fills the gap
Twitch shuts down in South Korea in February, two months after announcing it. Chzzk, a new service from Korean tech company Naver, draws 43 million hours in its first full month and 100 million by December. SOOP, Korea's longtime local platform, ends the year above its 2023 total.
Stream Hatchet, The state of Korean live streaming (6 March 2025)
2025
TikTok passes Twitch
Counting TikTok Live for the first time, live streaming reaches 29.7 billion hours in the first quarter. TikTok takes about 27%, passing Twitch (16.3%) for second place behind YouTube Live.
Streams Charts, Q1 2025 global livestreaming landscape (29 April 2025)
The best year since 2021, without Twitch
Stream Hatchet, which does not count TikTok, puts 2025 at 36.4 billion hours, the most since 2021. YouTube Gaming has its best year for live viewing at 8.8 billion hours, and Kick grows 131% to 4.5 billion. Twitch stays the biggest platform but falls four quarters in a row.
A 30 billion hour quarter, and Kick's first dip
Live streaming passes 30 billion hours in the fourth quarter, and TikTok passes 10 billion in a quarter for the first time. Twitch falls for the fourth straight quarter, and Kick drops from the previous quarter for the first time since launch.
Streams Charts, Q4 2025 global livestreaming landscape (26 January 2026)
Brazil's top streamers use three platforms at once
In Streams Charts' ranking of Brazilian streamers by hours watched in 2025, five of the top ten stream on Twitch, YouTube and Kick, among them Gaules, second with 95,540,925 hours, and Baiano, fourth with 57,655,702. Streams Charts, which sells cross-platform streaming analytics, says combining platforms is what puts such streamers in the ranking, and that a platform-by-platform breakdown 'would paint a very different picture.' In Brazil, it writes, 'multistreaming is not a bonus tactic; it is a core competitive advantage.'
Streams Charts, top Brazilian streamers of 2025 (18 December 2025)
2026
Twitch at 15% of a market that includes TikTok
Streams Charts' full-year 2025 numbers: Twitch's viewing falls about 10%, to just over 15% of all hours watched. YouTube Live has over 47%, TikTok close to 30%, and Kick just over 4% after growing 125%. Chzzk grows 41%, passing a billion hours for the year.
Streams Charts, livestreaming platforms dynamics 2025 (2 February 2026)
Multistreamers split their hours three ways
In the first half of 2026, the average streamer who broadcasts on several platforms spends 56.18% of their hours on Twitch, 23.59% on YouTube, and 19.52% on Kick.
Streams Charts, multistreaming audience split, H1 2026 (7 August 2026)
YouTube creators earn more per deal
Collabstr's brand-deal data, reported by PocketGamer.biz: YouTube gaming creators averaged $203.35 per deal, 23% more than Twitch streamers' $165.70.
TikTok Live outweighs every other platform combined
Stream Hatchet starts counting TikTok Live in the second quarter of 2026, and it is bigger than every other platform combined, at 8.9 billion hours and 50.9% of the market. The other platforms fall 6% from a year earlier to 8.6 billion hours: Twitch 4.5 billion (down 8%), YouTube Gaming 1.8 billion (down 19%), and Kick 1.3 billion (up 37%).
Stream Hatchet, Q2 2026 live streaming trends report (free, behind a registration form)
Consequences
012026
The biggest gaming platform is not the best-paying
Viewing hours and earnings rank the platforms differently. In a second cut of the same Collabstr data, comparing what creators asked for with what they kept after fees, Twitch creators asked for $398 on average but kept $127, just 32%. YouTube creators asked for $311 and kept $255, or 82%. The per-deal averages in the timeline are what was actually paid, and these are the asking prices behind them.
022026
One channel, three platforms
Streaming on several platforms is now the norm. The average multi-platform streamer spends 56% of their hours on Twitch, 24% on YouTube, and 20% on Kick. Streams Charts says each platform plays a different role for the same creator.
Streams Charts, multistreaming audience split, H1 2026 (7 August 2026)
032025
A market can remake itself in a year
When a platform leaves a country, the market there can rebuild within a year. After Twitch left South Korea, Chzzk went from launch to 100 million monthly hours by December 2024. Krafton, the Korean publisher behind PUBG, got 57% of the viewing of its games in the second half of the year from YouTube Gaming.
Stream Hatchet, The state of Korean live streaming (6 March 2025)
042026
Kick pays streamers the most, with its founders' money behind it
Kick lets creators keep 95% of their subscription earnings. Its co-founder Bijan Tehrani says he and Ed Craven have personally invested nearly $1 billion in the platform since it began, and Streams Charts, reporting that Kick reached 100 million users, calls it Stake-backed. The article gives no figure for Kick's profits.
Objections
Counterpoint2025
Twitch still leads in gaming
Twitch is still where gaming streams live. Gaming made up 76% of Twitch viewing in the fourth quarter of 2025, and Twitch stayed above 4 billion hours a quarter. On TikTok and YouTube, gaming was under 15% of watch time.
Streams Charts, Q4 2025 global livestreaming landscape (26 January 2026)
Counterpoint2025
Twitch's share depends on who is counted
Stream Hatchet does not count TikTok, and by its numbers Twitch was still the biggest platform in 2025, even after four quarters of decline. Include TikTok, as Streams Charts does, and Twitch drops to about 15%. Both describe the same year.
Counterpoint2026
Kick's growth has slowed, not stopped
Kick, the fastest-growing challenger, was still up 37% on a year earlier in the second quarter of 2026 by Stream Hatchet's count, against 131% for all of 2025. Streams Charts recorded its first drop from one quarter to the next in the fourth quarter of 2025. A slowdown from a very fast pace, not a stop.
What to watch
2026
Whether Twitch falls below 19 billion
Early 2027, when Stream Hatchet usually publishes its yearly report. It counted 19.2 billion hours on Twitch in 2025. A 2026 total under 19 billion would extend the decline for another year.
2026
Whether Kick's first dip was a ceiling
Streams Charts' next quarterly reports. Kick fell from one quarter to the next for the first time at the end of 2025, and its monthly figures have since turned back up: Streams Charts put September 2026 above 700 million hours watched and 1.09 million average viewers, a record and 21% above its previous mark. The quarterly reports will show whether a record month makes a record quarter.
Streams Charts, Q4 2025 global livestreaming landscape (26 January 2026)
Further reading
- DataMultistreaming Audience Split: Twitch, YouTube & Kick in H1 2026streamscharts.com
- DataSOOP Korea and Chzzk: One Year After Twitch's Shutdownstreamhatchet.com
- ReportingYouTube gaming creators "command 23% higher deal rates than Twitch"pocketgamer.biz
Where to follow it Stream Hatchet quarterly and annual reports, Streams Charts, Netinfluencer, Bloomberg's creator-economy coverage
- Steam's glut is making discovery the hard part
- Governments are paying for games as culture and industry
- Apple and Google are being forced to open their stores
- Game workers are winning union contracts
- Creative workers are fighting over AI consent and disclosure
- Developers are turning against generative AI
- Regulators are forcing child-safety changes on platforms
- India has outlawed games played for money
- EU consumer authorities are going after how games sell currency
- The biggest games companies are taking a growing share of the money
- Saudi state money is buying major games companies
- Publishers are reviving dormant franchises
- Console makers are keeping games exclusive again
- Mobile live events are converging on one playbook
- AI teammates are reaching players in short tests
- Chinese studios are trying to build premium global franchises
- Gambling money is moving into games and the platforms around them
- Mobile publishers are moving payments to their own web shops
- Esports is running on Saudi money
- Game subscriptions are stalling
- Investors are abandoning blockchain games
- Handheld gaming PCs are losing momentum