The Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard defamation trial gained a huge amount of traction on live streaming, garnering 26.7 million hours watched on Twitch.
The trial wrapped up on June 1st after almost 6 weeks of deliberation. Creators on Twitch used the trial as content, boosting the Just Chatting category since April 11th. Over 950 streams went live during the trial, reaching a peak concurrent viewership of 448k viewers.
The average hours watched for the Just Chatting category on Twitch in February and March was 262.8 million hours. This number was boosted in April and May by 7.25% to an average of 281.8 million hours. The almost 30 million hours watched of the trial seems to have had an effect on the streaming category and viewer engagement on Twitch, showing that non-gaming content on the platform is becoming more relevant.
Top Streamers Covering the Trial
Asmongold was the top Twitch streamer covering the trial with 16 million hours watched. His channel alone generated over half of the hours watched of the entire trial on Twitch. He also reached a peak of 448k concurrent viewers during the last day of the verdict reading. During that stream on June 1st, viewers sent over 260k chat messages on his channel.
xQc was the second most popular Twitch streamer of the trial. His streams garnered 6.3 million hours watched and reached 136k peak concurrent viewers. Rekieta Law was the third most popular channel on Twitch with 1.5 million hours watched with 83k peak concurrent viewers.
Pop culture events like the Depp vs. Heard defamation trial are becoming more popular with live streamers and viewers. Non-gaming content on Twitch is becoming more popular and relevant, and more and more people are watching these events on live streaming platforms other than live television. As marketing agencies and brands looking to advertise on Twitch search for content creators to partner with, they should seriously consider those non-gaming streamers whose main streaming category is Just Chatting. In an ecosystem where gaming is seemingly king, non-gaming content continues to maintain a stronghold as the most popular singular category on Twitch.
To learn how your brand or marketing agency can utilize Stream Hatchet’s powerful BI intelligence for live streaming analytics, drop us a line!
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates in the live streaming industry.