Livestreaming has seen a significant increase in recent months. This is mostly due to many staying at home across the globe, with only the internet to stay connected. Many have used this time to work on their video game backlogs, but others have taken this time to stream their work online.
Not only have gamer been livestreaming, and watching livestreams, even more these days. Non-gaming livestreams have also increased, from fitness to creatives. Gaming still predominately surges ahead of non-gaming content, but non-gamers have taken to streaming platforms to find connections or watch someone create something new.
StreamElements, a provider of streaming software, and Arsenal.gg have presented some of the numbers in their “State of the Steam” report for April. The report is now available on SteamElements’ official blog, which is located on Medium.
Overall, streaming has seen a major boost of around 45% hours across every livestreaming platform. Twitch had the most hours waited in April, with over 1 billion hours logged. “Stay at home” orders likely led to the big increase, especially since many gaming events were being canceled during this time.
In our latest report (with data courtesy of @arsenalgg), the hours watched of music & performing arts livestreams have quadrupled when you compare April 2019 to April 2020.
If you're a music streamer, drop a link. Those looking to get started can visit: https://t.co/6Bp0qo5xqa pic.twitter.com/iuKM0qrOyE
— StreamElements (@StreamElements) May 15, 2020
Riot’s closed beta launch of Valorant wasn’t “closed” to viewers. The new title saw over 334 million hours watched in April, followed by non-gaming Just Chatting steamers, League of Legends, and Fornite, which has continued to be popular on streaming platforms. For the month of April, streamer Anomaly ranked in the top spot, with 40 million hours watched.
Valorant is a new title some players may not be familiar with. The title is Riot’s 5 vs. 5 competitive character-based game where tactical shooter meets hypernatural powers. Characters have not only firearms but also unique abilities. The game requires some strategy as players learn to utilize their character’s skills against others.
Valorant’s requirements to receive a closed beta key may be why the game saw a huge spike in viewers in April. Players have to have both a Riot and Twitch account, then link them together. Those who want a key have to watch at least two hours of Valorant streams, but the higher the hours watched, the higher the chance to obtain a key. Players who are eligible will receive a key drop, even if they’re offline.
Valorant is free-to-play and online but is currently in closed beta. The game officially launches for PC on June 2.
