Is streaming really on a decline?

The Internet is overrun by headlines talking about the drop in hours watched in February across all streaming platforms. Is it really that bad? The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle.

In other news:

💵 Epic Games is now the single biggest corporate donor to Ukraine

🤎 Open letter of black streamers and Color of Change to Twitch

🎮 Diablo Immortal leaked release date

February is a month where many industries experience a slump, streaming included. It’s the shortest month of the year which is reason enough to notice a decrease in watched hours. This year it happened again, which should surprise no one. As per the State of the Stream report by Stream Elements and Rainmaker, the number of watched hours on Twitch dropped compared to January to 1.9 billion (from just over 2 billion watched hours). Facebook Gaming data tell the same story, dropping to 497 million watched hours from 617 million in January.

Those stats aside, the year over year results show steady continuous growth on both platforms. February 2021 Twitch users watched a total of 1.86 billion hours, and 345 million hours on Facebook Gaming.

StreamElements/Rainmaker.gg

Interestingly enough, February saw the first VTuber breaking into the TOP 10 list of most-watched streamers. VTubers are creators who use animated avatars instead of showing their real faces. Thanks to a subathon (an event in which steamers stay online as long as viewers are subscribing to their channels), Ironmouse became 7th most-watched streamer in February. This is a significant sign that v-tubing is a trend on the rise.

We don’t want to say “I told you so”, but we did name virtual streaming was one of the top streaming trends to watch. No big deal tho, we’re humble like that. The virtual nature of the content makes these streams an incredible opportunity for creative campaigns. Brands and marketing experts should be keeping a close eye on how it develops.

Antonina Marc

Streaming

Black streamers and Color of Change demand #TwitchDoBetter

The non-profit civil rights advocacy organisation publishes an open letter to Twitch CEO Emmett Shear and senior staff, calling for increased efforts to fight racism on the platform after another series of hate raids. The demands are simple: better moderation, an internal racial equity audit and better community support.

Facebook Gaming appears to be overrun by spam and pirated content

Can spam videos and malicious activities twist the great results of Facebook Gaming streaming? It would appear that a lot of the platform’s biggest stream channels are abusing faulty recommendation algorithms and click baits to rack up extraordinary numbers of views.

Diablo Immortal release date leaked on Apple Store

A title mocked as an ‘out-of-season” April’s Fool joke appears to be nearing release. The date for the mobile Diablo game leaked on Apple Store. Can the mobile game redeem Blizzard after a series of controversial decisions and accusations?

Epic Games is now the single biggest corporate donor to Ukraine

With four days still to go, a Fortnite fundraiser has already amassed $70 million, an amount higher than the aid offered by some countries.

Ukraine retro game museum destroyed by Russian bombing

Over 500 pieces of computer history spanning decades have been destroyed in Mariupol due to Russia’s ongoing invasion. Fortunately, the owner is safe and sound.

Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky added to US national security blacklist

Kaspersky is now deemed to “pose an unacceptable risk to the national security.” The popular software is associated with many worldwide corporations, including Microsoft, IBM and Intel. If you are still using it, you may consider swapping to a more stable solution.

New Business Development Manager – German market

Would you like to work with leading brands and be their guide for reaching Generation Z?

We don’t need to tell you that live streaming has incredible potential, and we see to it that top brands unleash it.

Become the leader of live-streaming marketing for top brands on the German market. Grow and learn with us and become the leader in helping brands understand and use the power of streamers.

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