With many people trapped at home during the second quarter due to the coronavirus outbreak, engagement on all types of transmission platforms has skyrocketed. That includes popular video streaming services, as well as Amazon.com‘s (NASDAQ: AMZN) Twitch, the largest live video game streaming platform. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) recently rescued the live broadcast, shut down its Mixer service and sent transmitters to Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) Gaming. In the meantime, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) The subsidiary Google continues to defend itself with YouTube Gaming Live.
This is how the main live streaming platforms performed in the second quarter.
Image source: Twitch.
Twitch poaching is expensive
Twitch completely demolished its previous record of 3.1 billion hours observed in the first quarter, and that commitment skyrocketed to nearly 5.1 billion hours observed in the second quarter, according to the latest estimates from Streamlabs. That put the observed hours portion of the platform at a dominant 67.6%. In terms of hours aired, Twitch also leads by a massive margin, with a 76.5% share.
|
Platform |
Observed hours quota |
Part of the hours transmitted |
|---|---|---|
|
Twitch |
67.6% |
76.5% |
|
YouTube Gaming Live |
twenty% |
6.7% |
|
Facebook games |
eleven% |
2.4% |
|
Mixer |
1.4% |
14.4% |
Data source: Streamlabs.
The stark discrepancy between the hours transmitted and the hours observed in Mixer shows why Microsoft is giving up. Microsoft had signed several exclusivity deals, hunting high-profile Twitch streamers like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek. Blevins reportedly raised $ 30 million, while Grzesiek took home an estimated $ 10 million. Despite spending generously to buy essentially more hours aired, very few people actually showed up clock that content
Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming Live saw engagement increases during the second quarter, also thanks in part to exclusivity deals to steal Twitch’s best talent. YouTube caught Jack “CouRage” Dunlap in November and Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter in January; Facebook attracted Jeremy “DisguisedToast” Wang and Corinna Kopf. All those poached streamers came from Twitch.
Facebook Gaming tripled its hours seen year-over-year to 822 million hours, while YouTube Gaming Live saw the hours seen hit a record 1.5 billion. The social media giant is seeing a steady increase in unique channels, which have now surpassed 200,000, and Mixer’s closure on July 22 could further increase that number.
Only three left
Live streaming has become a major battleground between the big tech giants, at least the remaining three. It is less clear whether platforms are profitable or not, particularly when considering massive infrastructure and technology costs.
In the middle of last year, Twitch was on track to generate $ 300 million in advertising revenue, according to The Information. Unfortunately, that was below the internal target of $ 500 million to $ 600 million. Viewers can also contribute directly to content creators in a number of ways, but the primary method of monetization is advertising, and advertising budgets have been slashed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mixer was originally founded as a Beamer before Microsoft acquired the startup. Beamer co-founder Matt Salsamendi recently told CNBC: “The live video is meaningless from the unit’s economic point of view.”
