According to a new “state of the industry” report curated by StreamElements, Youtube is closing in on Twitch in terms of livestream views. Although Twitch is still the king of videogame streaming, Youtube is not too far off. StreamElements is a website that gives insight and useful stats on videogame streaming services, such as Twitch, Youtube Live, and Mixr.

Twitch has amassed close to 2.5 billion hours of livestreams viewed. Meanwhile Youtube Live started 2018 with 15 percent of the livestream viewership market in January and grew to 25 percent by September of this year.

This means that Youtube’s livestream platform has been on a consistent upward trajectory and is doing pretty well for itself. StreamElements also analyzed what attracts viewers to these sites.

Twitch had over 813 million hours in September, and is still the leading streaming platform with close to 750 million viewers each month. On the otherhand, Youtube Live had a little over quarter of Twitch’s numbers with more than 226 million hours watched in September.

Microsoft’s live streaming platform Mixr had only a little over 13 million views in the month of September. Another noteworthy finding is Twitch’s smaller channels grew in terms of viewership, while the top 100 channels had a minor dip in viewed hours. Top 100 channels fell from 262 million hours watched to 254 million in September.

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Twitch, while still known for its video games streams, has now moved on to include other genres as well. These genres/categories include ASMR, live cooking, educational streams, playing guitar, and the most popular category IRL (In real life) streams.

IRL streams are so popular as they enable viewers to connect with their streamer of choice on a deeper level. Streamers are seen out of their comfort zone, doing everyday things such as picking up groceries, or taking their dog for a walk etc.

This category is favorite among viewers who don’t want to see their favorite streamers playing video games all day. IRL streams saw 41 million hours watched jump in the third quarter, compared to the first quarter of 2018. Another probable factor in IRL streams’ success was the decision to break down the categories into subcategories like cooking, ASMR, vlogs etc. Competitive gaming, also known as e-sports only accounts for 9 to 17 percent of total viewership.

Youtube has decided to kill its Youtube Gaming app, and merge the content with its main platform. This seems like a good decision, as backed by StreamElements’ figures. Youtube Live may grow even further than its current projection.

Youtube is looking to improve its services, due to the massive controversies the company faced in the past. The adpocalypse severely hit Youtube’s profits, which angered many prominent Youtube celebrities and content creators. To make up for this, Youtube stole Twitch’s idea of 5 dollar subscription model. For 5 dollars viewers could buy a monthly membership to their favorite Youtube channel. This will give them perks such as a custom badge next to their name, early access to videos, and behind the scenes footage. Let’s see what the future holds for Youtube and how far it can go head to head with Twitch. It will be a tough fight for Youtube Live that’s for sure.