Just Chatting earned its spot as the top category on Twitch in 2020 with 1.9 billion hours watched. For the entire year, League of Legends was No. 2 with 1.4 billion hours watched and Fortnite was No. 3 with 904 million hours watched.

Top categories with peak watch times include Valorant, Just Chatting, League of Legends, Among Us and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Valorant and Fall Guys were also the top two new IP of 2020 with 737 million and 139 million hours watched, respectively.

“Games like Fall Guys, Among Us and Phasmophobia featured the blueprint for the next generation of developers looking to mirror their success, which is gameplay that mirrors the structure of television game shows, such as short rounds with easy to learn rules and audience participation," said Nir.

Felix “xQcOW” Lengyel was the top Twitch streamer of 2020 and the month of December, followed by Alexandre “Gaules” Borba in both categories.

Facebook Gaming saw 388 million hours watched in December, the most in any month in 2020. The combined total hours watched on Facebook Gaming is 3.6 billion, a 166 percent increase from 2019.

“Facebook’s road to success can be tracked through a series of strategic moves, including their Tournaments product that launched with some high profile celebrity charity events, signing deals with over a half dozen prominent creators [and more]," Nir said.

Arsenal.gg’s data shows DLive, a relatively new live video streaming platform, had 59 million hours watched in 2020. The platform experienced a significant spike after Q1 due to quarantine, jumping from 9.7 million hours watched to 17 million in Q2. It has grown as an alternative platform for conservative users.

YouTube issued its own data report Dec. 8, showing 100 billion hours watched in 2020.

Photo courtesy of Riot Games (Valorant was the top new IP of 2020 and had top peak watch times for the year)