Twitch users watched a total of 1.64 billion hours of livestream, as the streaming platform experiences its second month of viewership decline since the start of the year.
Twitch Rolls Out Blurring and Filtering Features Amid Viewership Decline
Views Have Dropped by 261 Million Since January 2024
According to the latest report from service company StreamElements, Twitch's livestream viewership went down to 1.64 billion hours in April, resulting in a 7% decline from March's total of 1.77 billion hours, highlighting a "quiet month" for the streaming platform.
StreamElements and Rainmaker.gg's data also showed a 5% drop in daily hours watched, from 57 million in March to 55 million in April. Despite this monthly decline, the year-over-year decrease in viewing hours was less than 2%, indicating that Twitch's audience remains relatively stable but has since declined by 261 million hours since January this year.
"With no major launches, few must-view events, and one less day than March, Twitch’s hours watched dropped 8%. Year-over-year, the decrease was less than 2%, which illustrates that Twitch is remaining steady but still looking for its next big growth driver," Stream Elements said in its report, then gave their clarifications and thoughts. "Given the small change, this is not a red flag in terms of a decline. Twitch now needs to find a way to grow beyond its relative consistency."
Rush's Twitch Viewing Hours Increases by 227%
Overall, the top games on Twitch experienced declines, online game "Just Chatting" led the top 10 categories with 238 million hours watched, though down by 4%, followed by GTA 5 with 128 million hours. Live service games like Valorant, Fortnite, CS:GO, and LoL also amassed substantial viewership in the double-digit millions territory.
While some categories on Twitch experienced declines, others saw increases. Notably, multiplayer survival game Rust experienced the largest growth, with a 227% increase in viewing hours month-over-month, following the game's Waves of Changes update. StreamElements co-founder Or Perry commented, "April was a slow month with few significant events and no major game launches, but Rust's massive update provided one notable peak among the valleys regarding viewership."
Twitch Rolls Out Customization Features Including Content Filtering and Blurring Options
Meanwhile, in response to ongoing concerns about inappropriate content on the platform, Twitch introduced new features to help users filter unwanted streams. Users can now blur or hide livestreams involving gambling, drug use, or sexualized content. This is part of the Content Classification Labels guideline that Twitch introduced last year, which instructs streamers to tag their broadcasts appropriately.
Twitch's VP of community products Jeremy Forrester explained, "Our goal with these changes is to make it easier for you to have a Twitch experience that’s right for you and to choose the communities that you want to be a part of. We recognize that everyone’s viewing preferences differ, and you should have more control over what you encounter when you come to Twitch."
Streamers are required to label their content correctly, or Twitch will add the appropriate labels and make them irremovable. Twitch's rollout of these features came after years of criticism and multiple updates to Twitch's guidelines regarding sexual content and gambling.
Source:
Twitch: We’re Giving Viewers More Control Over Their Twitch Experience
State of the Stream for April 2024: Rust soared up the charts, Jynxzi was first to be top streamer twice in 2024
Twitch now lets you filter out and blur unwanted sexualised content
witch hours viewed drop to 1.64bn in quiet April
