The majority of the top 10 most watched games across Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Mixer, and Facebook were met with declines in hours watched from the previous week. Only three titles were able to increase their viewership and two of them sat at the top of the list with sizable growth. Expect a good portion of the games to bounce back next week and reverse their downward trends.
League of Legends maintained their #1 spot with a 7.23% increase to over 28 million hours watched. It’s no surprise that LoL is still the most watched game but it will look to grow its lead even further as the LCS and LEC kick off their seasons later this week. The challenge for League of Legends will be to hold off trending games (e.g. Escape from Tarkov a few weeks ago) but long-term, LoL seems to always find its way back to the top.
Fortnite rose two spots up to #2 through a 10.45% increase to over 19 million hours watched. The big increase likely came from the announcement of Fortnite’s Icon Series of in-game cosmetics. The new series announced cosmetics for Ninja, Loserfruit, TheGrefg, Pokimane, and more to come. Ninja became the first content creator to receive an in-game skin using his personal brand and likeness which lead to plenty of media attention. The Icon Series should lead to some sustainable viewership for Fortnite to keep fans coming back to check out the new cosmetics for their favorite streamers. On top of that, they created a campaign for anyone to submit an emote for a chance to have it created as an in-game item. Of course, the Fortnite community has jumped on the opportunity and we’ll be seeing plenty of submissions moving forward.
Minecraft was able to hold on to a top three spot after a decline of 7.18% to just above 18 million hours watched. Coming off the recent release of the January maps, Minecraft was expected to drop a little. However, the game’s breadth and depth has kept it alive and well in 2020 as there are more ways to play Minecraft than ever before. In addition to the subscription service they offer for new content, they consistently push out updates to the main game, have created access to play on all platforms, and even rolled out a AR version via Minecraft Earth. From placing blocks to building an empire, Minecraft is seemingly here to stay for many years to come.
Genre Breakdown of the Top Games:
- Battle Royale: 4 (Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, Garena Free Fire, PUBG)
- MOBA: 2 (League of Legends, Dota 2)
- Open World: 2 (Minecraft, GTA V)
- FPS: 2 (Escape from Tarkov, CS:GO)
