Twitch Faces Its Worst Month in Four Years
Solomon Thompson / 2 weeks ago
December 2024 marked a low point for Twitch, with the platform experiencing its lowest number of views in the past four years. Not since July 2020 have viewership numbers dropped so significantly. Adding to the challenge, the number of live streams has increased, creating a situation where supply is growing, but demand is falling—a trend that Twitch needs to reverse.
Significant Drop in Viewership
Twitch, one of the leading live-streaming platforms, hosts many popular content creators in the West. Despite some high-profile returns, such as Valkyrae and Ludwig in late 2024, December saw a sharp decline in viewership. According to data from StreamsCharts, a leading source of streaming market insights, viewers watched a total of 1.58 billion hours of live streams on Twitch, representing an 11% decrease compared to the previous month. This level of viewership hasn’t been seen since mid-2020.
While December is typically a weaker month for Twitch due to the holiday season, the decline was steeper than usual. Compounding the issue, activity among streamers increased, resulting in a higher number of channels and an astounding 43,200 active categories—the highest since March 2024.
Top Categories in December
As always, “Just Chatting” remained the most popular category, attracting over 1.5 million views. Other top categories included:
- GTA V with 99 million views
- Path of Exile with 69 million views
- Fortnite with 68 million views
Twitch now faces the challenge of addressing this decline in viewership while balancing its growing pool of streamers and content categories.