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Twitch, YouTube & Facebook Gaming all declined in viewing YoY through Q1 2022

After an explosive year of viewership during the pandemic, streaming viewership was done in the same quarter in 2022 according to a new Streamlabs report.

TJ Denzer

May 4, 2022 8:30 AM

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When the pandemic was in full effect and a lot of people were stuck inside, streaming and its viewership experienced an explosion in popularity like we’d never seen. Twitch, YouTube, and even Facebook Gaming saw record viewership with hundreds of millions of hours watched each platform. In 2022, the pandemic hasn’t magically disappeared, but as people get out more, the popularity streaming saw last year in the thick of things has died off a bit according to a recent Streamlabs report.

Streamlabs posted a quarterly statistics report on streaming in Q1 2022 (January 2022 to March 2022) with data from its partner analytics company at Stream Hatchet on May 4, 2022. According to the report, all major platforms that experienced a popularity boom - Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming, saw a decline in viewership year-over-year for Q1 2022. Twitch was the only platform among these big three players that even saw a slight boost in viewership this quarter when compared to Q4 2022.

The simple fact of the matter is that viewers aren’t stuck at home as much as they were last year during this same time when pandemic response efforts and COVID-19 were still in full effect. Further reporting this year from month-to-month statistics such as those in the StreamElements State of the Stream reports have supported this information. Despite the fact that February 2022 was an explosive month for Lost Ark and the game sat high on Twitch viewership charts, the month was still down overall from Twitch’s highest highs experienced during the pandemic.

Nonetheless, a lot of people got into streaming and livestream viewership that otherwise might not have during the pandemic. We still have yet to see the viewership drop-off bottom out, but the numbers in viewership are still arguably higher than they were pre-pandemic. Stay tuned as we continue to report on further analytics and trends in livestreaming as data and information become available.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.