In terms of livestreaming, YouTube remains at the top of the board. With over 30 billion hours watched in the first two quarters of 2025, it still holds over 50% of the total livestreaming watch hours across all platforms.

For perspective on how immense that number is - 30 billion hours is 3,425 YEARS.

What works on YouTube? Diverse content. That 50% figure is across ALL types of livestreaming content. Gaming currently sits at 2.2 billion hours in Q2, the highest recorded viewership for the category on the platform so far, giving YouTube 24% of the market share.

Things working in YouTube's favor? YouTube is embedded into any Google search, with videos, shorts and clips pulled up on page 1 of searches. Streams are included in Shorts, linking to live content on YouTube with ease. And huge names such as IShowSpeed, LCK and TimTheTatman bring in huge numbers to the platform for their events, streams and other live content.

YouTube Live Streaming - Q1 & Q2 2025

Q1 Hours Watched: 15 billion

Q2 Hours Watched: 15.4 billion

Livestreaming Market Share: 51%

Gaming Livestreaming Market Share: 24% (Q2)

Most Popular Genre : Live Music

Most Popular Game: League of Legends

Peak Viewers (Platform - Day): 19.6M

Peak Live Channels (Day): 46K

Current Viewers (Platform): 8.6M

Current Live Channels: 41K

TL;DR - Great choice for diverse content, strong choice for gaming, good discoverability with Shorts but still hard for growing channels. For those looking to livestream variety or vlogging, with the most watch genres including a lot of lifestyle types of content, this may be the place to branch out.

Twitch is thought of as the gaming platform. Even though the figures are slightly dipping as people diversify their chosen streaming platform, Twitch still holds onto the trophy as Gaming and Esports victor.

76% of the watch time on Twitch - which for 2025 currently sits at 9 billion hours total for platform - is spent on tuning into gaming/esports related channels.

What works for Twitch? Gaming. Esports. And they have historically been comfortable with this. But platform growth has slowed. The result of this is Twitch introducing some new, innovative features - including revamping the Partner and Affiliate programs, known as Plus. This introduces more generous margins for revenue earnings.

Things that work in Twitch's favor - are that it is known and established, popular and familiar for those looking to watch and host gaming related content. And that the Plus program, vertical streaming, monetization updates that are being introduced will mean it likely remains that way.

Twitch Streaming - Q1 & Q2 2025

Q1 Hours Watched: 4.8 billion

Q2 Hours Watched: 4.6 billion

Livestreaming Market Share: 15%

Gaming Livestreaming Market Share: 54% (Q2)

Most Popular Genre : Just Chatting

Most Popular Game: Counter-Strike 2

Peak Viewers (Platform): 14M

Peak Live Channels: 250K

Current Viewers (Platform): 2.2M

Current Live Channels: 76K

TL;DR - Whilst Twitch has dipped to 3rd place in the overall livestreaming rankings, for gaming and esports it still remains at number 1. With a bunch of much needed updates that improve platform experience, and monetization options to challenge competitors, this fact is unlikely to change.

Kick, though still the new kid on the block and the smallest of the competitors featured here, is growing - consistently. Kick has found a niche and ran with it, and it is working for them. By centering creators and revenue, they are taking advantage of the gap left by other platforms. On Kick - up to 95% goes straight to the creator.

Another reason for Kick's steady rise is that, and this can be slightly controversial at times, there are less content restrictions. Over the first 2 quarters of 2025, several large streamers from other platforms have made their move over to Kick, much like xQc did in 2023. The creators that moved over in Q2 have upped their viewership by an average of 377%. Kick is known for handing out incentivizing streamer deals, and pushing its 'creator first' tagline.

In terms of gaming, Kick currently sits 3rd on the leader board for gaming and esports content, but for live streaming in general, Kick sits in 4th place. Many factors, including securing high level creators, will have factored into Kick's continued expansion. In Q2 the platform raised their share by 5.5% compared to the same time in 2024.

Kick Live Streaming - Q1 & Q2 2025

Q1 Hours Watched: 730 million

Q2 Hours Watched: 863 million

Livestreaming Market Share: 4%

Gaming Livestreaming Market Share: 11% (Q2)

Most Popular Genre : Just Chatting

Most Popular Game: GTA V

Peak Viewers (Platform): 2M

Peak Live Channels: 7.4K

Current Viewers (Platform): 453K

Current Live Channels: 5K

TL;DR - Kick is the smaller platform, but it is still viable. The trick with a growing platform, especially one you can see having consistent growth, is to get in whilst you can anchor a space for your content. Kick offers this, as well as a series of creator and revenue centric options, meaning that continued quarterly growth will be expected.

TikTok can sometimes feel like the wild west of platforms, but no one can dispute that it has had insane growth over the years it has been out. It has around 1.5 billion active users per month that tune into its short form content, and now the TikTok Live side is catching up.

In Q2 of this year, TikTok officially became the 2nd most watched livestream platform on the planet after YouTube, with double the amount of hours watched compared to Twitch.

With its attention grabbing content and easy watching, along with Live videos appearing in FYP and other feeds, the transition that creators have made to Live feels organic and seamless.

IRL content, live battles, fashion and beauty, and more, dominates the live side of the platform, along with revenue, donation, TikTok shop allowing generation of revenue through other means outside of the creator fund.

TikTok is mobile focused, meaning it is created to be accessible anyway, with easily digestible content and smooth livestreaming experiences.

TikTok Live Streaming - Q1 & Q2 2025

Q1 Hours Watched: 8.2 billion

Q2 Hours Watched: 8.5 billion

Livestreaming Market Share: 28%

Gaming Livestreaming Market Share: 3.5% (Q2)

Most Popular Genre : Chats

Most Popular Game: GTA V

Peak Viewers (Platform): 3.5M

Peak Live Channels: Unavailable

Current Viewers (Platform): 2M (~)

Current Live Channels: Unavailable

TL;DR - TikTok has huge discoverability potential for even the newest users due to its algorithm pushing live content from any relevant channels. Whilst still a small share in the gaming genre, the potential is there. Much like Kick, you can choose to get in whilst it grows.