YouTube Gaming Statistics (2026)
YouTube Gaming enters 2026 as the fastest-rising force in gaming livestreaming, riding a record-breaking year and eroding Twitch’s long-held lead. This reference page compiles the latest verified figures on watch time, market share, top games, creators, regional strongholds, audience demographics and creator monetization for journalists covering the platform. Free to use with a link back to ShaneTheGamer as the source.
Key Takeaways for Journalists
- 8.8 billion hours watched in 2025 — YouTube Gaming recorded 8.8 billion hours watched in 2025, a 12% year-over-year increase and the platform’s highest annual total on record, according to live-streaming analytics firm Stream Hatchet.
- ~24% of all gaming livestream hours. The platform’s share of total live-streaming gaming hours watched, excluding TikTok Live, reached 24%, up from 23% in 2024 and 17% in 2023.
- 2.2 billion hours in a single quarter. YouTube Gaming accounted for 2.2 billion hours in Q2 2025, a new record for the platform.
- Roblox is the most-watched game, up 294%. Roblox ranked as the most-watched game on YouTube Gaming in 2025, with 425 million hours watched, a 294% year-over-year increase.
- Japan out-watches the US. Japan’s creators in the Top 1000 generated 451 million hours watched in 2025, comfortably ahead of the US at 307 million.
- IShowSpeed led all creators — IShowSpeed led the platform with 68.5M hours watched.
- Sponsored streams hit a five-year high. Viewership of streams containing “#ad” in the title reached 4.5 million hours watched in Q4 2025, the highest level since Q3 2020.
- A Gen Z, dominated audience. Stream Hatchet’s demographic analysis of the top 100 YouTube Gaming channels found that 82% of viewers identified as male. The 25-to-29 age bracket represented 36% of viewership, and the 20-to-24 group contributed a further 26%.
- Sits inside a 2.7-billion-user ecosystem — YouTube has over 2.70 billion monthly active users worldwide as of 2026, according to industry estimates.
- $100 billion paid to creators — YouTube said it has paid out over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies since 2021.
Watch Time: A Record Year Amid a Shifting Market
2025 was the strongest year YouTube Gaming has ever posted. According to Stream Hatchet, YouTube Gaming reached a record 8.8 billion hours watched in 2025, representing a 12% year-over-year increase and accounting for approximately 25% of hours watched across live-streaming gaming platforms. The firm’s CEO framed the result as evidence of a structural shift, noting a resurgence in sponsored streams alongside the raw viewership gains.
The growth was not evenly distributed across the year. The Stream Hatchet Q2 2025 report revealed that the total hours watched across major live-streaming platforms surpassed 9 billion, marking a 5% increase year-over-year, and of this total, YouTube Gaming achieved a new platform record, accounting for 2.2 billion hours of the total live-streamed content. That quarter was buoyed by major gaming moments and mobile esports, and it marked the platform’s all-time quarterly high.
The competitive backdrop matters. Live streaming hit 36.4 billion hours watched in 2025, just short of the 2021 pandemic peak of 37.1 billion. Within that total, Twitch finished the year with 19.2 billion hours but lost 8.3 percentage points of market share, while YouTube Gaming posted its best year ever at 8.8 billion hours, a 12% annual gain. For deeper context on the incumbent, see our companion Twitch statistics page.
The result is a narrowing race. The gap between the two platforms has narrowed from roughly 3:1 two years ago to just over 2:1 today. Kick, meanwhile, has emerged as the third pillar of the market: Kick surged 131% to 4.5 billion hours in 2025, capturing about one-eighth of total live streaming.
Market Share vs Twitch and Kick
The three-way race hardened in 2025. As of mid-year, Twitch recorded 5.1 billion hours watched in Q2 2025, maintaining 54% of the gaming live streaming market while YouTube Gaming reached 2.2 billion hours with 24% market share. The direction of travel favors YouTube: YouTube Gaming achieved 25% year-over-year growth in Q2 2025, while Twitch experienced a 4.6% decline, and YouTube Gaming’s market share expanded from 17% to 24% year-over-year.
Twitch’s decline has been sustained rather than a one-quarter blip. Twitch has posted four straight quarters of declining viewership: Q1 2025 started at 5.26 billion hours, and by Q4 that number had dropped to 4.4 billion, the lowest in nearly five years. Some of that erosion reflected cleanup rather than lost audience. Part of the dip came from a crackdown on viewbotting that stripped out artificial engagement.
Kick has been the disruptor. Kick grew 131% year-over-year in 2025, reaching 4.5 billion total hours watched and roughly 1.8 million unique channels, and its 95/5 creator split has lured streamers away from both Twitch and YouTube. That said, YouTube Gaming’s structural advantage is scale it does not have to build: YouTube Gaming doesn’t publish a separate user count because it sits inside YouTube’s larger ecosystem of over 2 billion monthly logged-in users, and that integration is a core advantage, gaming content on YouTube reaches audiences who may never visit a dedicated streaming site.
| Platform | 2025 hours watched | YoY change | Q2 2025 market share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twitch | 19.2 billion | ≈ −10% | 54% |
| YouTube Gaming | 8.8 billion | +12% | 24% |
| Kick | 4.5 billion | +131% | ~11% |
| Total live streaming | 36.4 billion | — | 100% |
Most-Watched Games on YouTube Gaming
The 2025 game rankings underscore how different YouTube Gaming is from PC-centric Twitch, with mobile, sandbox and family-friendly titles dominating. Roblox ranked as the most-watched game on YouTube Gaming in 2025, with 425 million hours watched, a 294% year-over-year increase, and the report described YouTube Gaming as the preferred live-streaming platform for Roblox creators.
The rest of the top five leans heavily on esports and mobile. League of Legends placed second at 421 million hours, followed by Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (412 million), Garena Free Fire (380 million), and Counter-Strike (342 million). Growth was broad-based: nine of the top 10 games recorded year-over-year growth in viewership.
Minecraft’s rebound stood out alongside Roblox. Minecraft posted the second-largest gain at 91%, reaching 279 million hours, VALORANT grew 25% to 221 million hours, and Fortnite rose 27% to 170 million. Two more titles rounded out the list: Grand Theft Auto V (261M) and Battlegrounds Mobile India (209M).
Top Creators and VTubers
Individual creators drove enormous share of watch time in 2025. IShowSpeed led the platform with 68.5M hours watched across the full year, cementing his status as YouTube Gaming’s marquee draw. On sponsored content specifically, the top creators of sponsored YouTube Gaming content in 2025 were variety streamer TheBurntPeanut (697,000 hours watched), Free Fire streamer Apelapato999 (683,000 hours), and VTuber Clio Aite (411,000 hours).
Virtual creators are a defining feature of YouTube Gaming that sets it apart from rivals. The VTuber leaderboard was topped by hololive and NIJISANJI talent, with one virtual creator leading all virtual creators with 49.4 million hours watched, followed by Pekora Ch. at 47.3 million and Kuzuha Channel at 38.4 million. The category also produces unusual audience profiles: the report cited Japanese rapper nqrse as a notable exception to the male-skewing pattern, recording 5.6 million hours watched between Q4 2024 and Q3 2025 with approximately 79% female viewership.
Short-form content is increasingly bundled with live output. Canadian streamer outwork and U.S.-based CaylusBlox collectively gained 14 million new followers in 2025, posting Minecraft and Roblox content, respectively, through a combined Shorts and streaming strategy. For more on the money behind competitive gaming, see our esports earnings research.
Regional Strongholds
YouTube Gaming’s geography is strikingly Asia-weighted. Among the top 1,000 creators for which country data is available, Japanese channels generated the most viewership in 2025, with 451 million hours watched; U.S.-based channels ranked second at 307 million hours, followed by India at 194 million. Japan’s lead is powered by its virtual-creator ecosystem, as the country’s thriving VTuber scene features virtual creators like those from hololive and NIJISANJI commanding enormous, deeply loyal audiences.
The broader regional story reinforces the pattern. Six of the Top 10 countries are in Asia, and India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand combined for 472M hours watched, edging out Japan’s total. Latin America is the main counterweight outside Asia and the US: Brazil is the standout, pulling 192M hours and firmly establishing South America as a key YouTube Gaming market.
Some of this positioning is a direct consequence of Twitch’s retreat. There’s also high viewership from Korea (130M hours), which makes sense because Twitch cut services there in 2023, blocking all Korean streamers from having a presence on its platform.
| Country | 2025 hours watched (Top 1,000 creators) |
|---|---|
| Japan | 451 million |
| United States | 307 million |
| Brazil | 192 million |
| India | 194 million |
| Vietnam | 136 million |
| Korea | 130 million |
| Indonesia | 100 million |
| Bulgaria | 50 million |
| Thailand | 42 million |
Audience Demographics
The core YouTube Gaming audience is young, male-skewing and concentrated in a handful of markets. Stream Hatchet’s demographic analysis of the top 100 YouTube Gaming channels by hours watched found that 82% of viewers identified as male, with the 25-to-29 age bracket representing 36% of viewership and the 20-to-24 group contributing 26%. Publisher summaries put it plainly: over 50% of the audience for top channels is in their 20s.
Geographically, the top-channel audience is remarkably concentrated. Fifty-six percent of viewers across the surveyed channels were based in the U.S. (26%), Japan (19%), or Brazil (11%). Income data tracks the young profile: income distribution skewed toward lower brackets, consistent with the younger age profile, though higher-income segments, particularly the $50,000 to $75,000 range, were more prevalent among channels with predominantly U.S.-based audiences.
Those gaming numbers sit within a colossal parent platform. YouTube has over 2.70 billion monthly active users worldwide as of 2026. Its largest single audience is India. The top countries by user count are India (491 million), the United States (253 million), Brazil (144 million), Indonesia (143 million), and Mexico (83.6 million). Overall, 54.3% of YouTube users identify as male and 45.7% as female, a far more balanced split than the gaming-specific figures.
Sponsorships, Shorts and Esports Moments
The comeback of brand-funded content was one of 2025’s defining trends. Q4 2025 brought the highest amount of viewership for sponsored gaming streams (4.5 million hours) since 2020, when digital content was universally bolstered by COVID lockdowns. Short-form gaming content also expanded sharply before cooling slightly: gaming-related Shorts posted to YouTube grew across three consecutive quarters in 2025, peaking at 6.15 million videos in August before declining 11% in Q4 to 5.3 million.
Tentpole live moments repeatedly broke records. Nintendo’s Japanese channel set the all-time peak viewership record on YouTube Gaming in 2025, drawing 3.3 million concurrent viewers for the Nintendo Direct unveiling of the Switch 2 console. Esports has become a reliable driver too: despite 37% fewer tournaments compared to Q2 2024, esports tournaments recorded a 6% increase in viewership to 729 million hours watched, with viewership evenly split between co-streaming channels and official esports channels. League of Legends’ championship was a standout, with League of Legends and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang both surpassing 400 million hours watched, and Worlds 2025 peaking at 3.8 million concurrent viewers.
On monetization, YouTube’s scale dwarfs dedicated streaming rivals. Total ad revenue on YouTube climbed 15% in 2024 to reach $36.1 billion. Cumulatively, YouTube said it has paid out over $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies since 2021. Gaming creators, however, face some of the toughest per-view economics on the platform: independent tracking suggests gaming YouTubers average roughly $1.90 RPM in 2026, ranging from about $0.80 for gameplay highlights with a global audience to $3.20 for US-audience esports analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours were watched on YouTube Gaming in 2025?
YouTube Gaming recorded 8.8 billion hours watched in 2025, a 12% year-over-year increase and the platform’s highest annual total on record, according to Stream Hatchet.
What is YouTube Gaming’s market share versus Twitch?
Twitch recorded 5.1 billion hours watched in Q2 2025, maintaining 54% of the gaming live streaming market, while YouTube Gaming reached 2.2 billion hours with 24% market share.
What is the most-watched game on YouTube Gaming?
Roblox ranked as the most-watched game on YouTube Gaming in 2025, with 425 million hours watched, a 294% year-over-year increase.
Which country watches the most YouTube Gaming content?
Among the top 1,000 YouTube Gaming creators for which country data is available, Japanese channels generated the most viewership in 2025, with 451 million hours watched.
Who was the top YouTube Gaming creator in 2025?
IShowSpeed led the platform with 68.5 million hours watched in 2025.
Methodology & Sourcing
Watch-time, market-share, top-game, creator, regional and demographic figures on this page are drawn primarily from Stream Hatchet’s 2025 YouTube Gaming Trends Report and its 2025 quarterly Live Streaming Trends Reports (published via GameSquare), as relayed by Tubefilter, Netinfluencer, GamesHub and TipRanks. Platform-level user, revenue and creator-payout figures come from CNBC, Deadline and Google/YouTube disclosures, plus aggregated demographic data from Hootsuite and Global Media Insight. Creator RPM ranges are independent estimates from earnings-tracking studies and should be treated as directional rather than official. Note two important caveats: Stream Hatchet’s country and demographic breakdowns reflect the platform’s top 1,000 (or top 100) creators where data is available, not total platform viewership by country; and several third-party statistics sites republish the same underlying Stream Hatchet data, so figures may recur across outlets. All figures reflect the latest data available as of early-to-mid 2026; anything described as “projected,” “estimated” or “~” is not an audited number.
Sources
- Stream Hatchet / GameSquare, 2025 YouTube Gaming Trends Report (2026)
- Stream Hatchet / GameSquare, Q2 2025 Live Streaming Trends Report (2025)
- Tubefilter, YouTube Gaming watchtime coverage (2026)
- Netinfluencer, YouTube Gaming viewership report coverage (2026)
- GamesHub, Stream Hatchet Q2 report coverage (2025)
- TipRanks / The Fly, Stream Hatchet Q2 2025 summary (2025)
- Quantumrun, YouTube Gaming vs Twitch statistics (2026)
- Icon Era, YouTube Gaming vs Twitch statistics (2026)
- CNBC and Deadline, YouTube creator payouts and ad revenue (2025)
- Hootsuite, YouTube statistics for marketers (2026)
- Global Media Insight, YouTube user statistics (2026)
- Statista / Streams Charts, YouTube Gaming streamer and content data (2025–2026)
Spotted a newer figure or an error? Contact the ShaneTheGamer desk and we will update this page.
