More than 75 percent of Canadians have received their first COVID-19 vaccination – which means businesses are looking to open. But with many people still working from home, they’re looking for new ways to be entertained. According to Streamlabs, they’re looking in the direction of gaming livestreams. Streamlabs reports that viewership across Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming shot up 78.5% last year with an increase of 27.9 billion hours viewed. Breaking it down, Twitch went up 67.36% in viewership, YouTube went up an impressive 96.5% in viewership, and finally Facebook Gaming saw a meteoric rise with an increase of 184%. All three platforms are known for their gaming live streams, but what are the unique differences that contributed to their success?

The first site that probably comes to mind when talking about gaming livestreams is Twitch.tv. The site emerged in 2011 as a competitor to YouTube who had only just started its livestreaming content. Initially, it was a division of Justin.tv, but it became so popular Justin.tv rebranded to Twitch in 2014. It was also acquired by Amazon in the same year. In the beginning, the difference between Twitch and YouTube was that the platform was entirely dedicated to streaming games alone. Eventually Twitch grew to allow non-gaming streams on its platform, including streaming live events, but it’s still mostly thought of for its gaming. While other sites allow for archives of content after the streams, archives on Twitch are made unavailable after 14 days for affiliates and 60 days for partners. The platform boasts an average of 140 million users and roughly 9 million active streamers monthly.

Founding: 2011 (As a division of Justin.tv), 2014 (As the primary platform, also acquired by Amazon)

Popular streamers: Ninja (17 million followers), xQc (highest hours watched monthly), Ludwig (most subbed streamer), TommyInnit (highest average viewer count at 174 thousand)

Most viewed games: League of Legends (35 billion all-time viewers), Fortnite (20 billion viewers), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (16 billion viewers)

Demographic: Users on the site tend to skew on the younger side with 41% of its users in the 16-24 demographic. The audience is also mostly male with 65% of viewers identifying as male. This is an improvement from the figures from 2017, however, where 81.5% users identified as male. The USA also accounts for almost 30% of the traffic on the site, with only 4.25% of viewers hailing from Canada.

Monetization: Twitch allows streamers who qualify for its Affiliate or Partner program to monetize their content. Viewers can support streamers using bits, which are a site currency that roughly translate to 1 bit = 0.01 USD, or through subscriptions to the streamer’s channel which come in three tiers of support levels. Becoming affiliated or partnered also means earning money from ads. The math works out to $0.25 - $1.50 per 1000 views. Twitch takes 29% from bits and 50% from subscriptions (less for partners).

YouTube was the first platform to get into livestreaming and popularize it. It hosted its first live event – YouTube Live – in 2008. It featured big name celebrities like Katy Perry, Smosh, and MythBusters. While it was a big event, it was far and away from the livestreaming we know today. It hosted a few more events including the 2009 U2 concert, but it wasn’t until 2013, well after Twitch had become popular, that YouTube allowed users to livestream on the platform. YouTube Live has never been restrictive on the type of content users can stream, in comparison to Twitch. They do, however, have separate categories viewers can use to narrow the content they want to view – one of these tags being Gaming. A big difference between YouTube and other platforms is the ability for content to live longer on the site. YouTube was primarily a video hosting site to begin with, so streams from users can stay archived on channels for an indefinite amount of time.

Founding: 2013 (For livestreaming to become a feature for users)

Popular streamers: FGTeeV, Jelly, Flamingo

Most Viewed Games: Minecraft (201 billion views), Roblox (75 billion), Garena Free Fire (72 billion views)

Demographic: Statistics for YouTube measure users on the entire website rather than only the gaming side, but as a whole YouTube has a userbase of over 2 billion monthly active users. Its users tend to skew on the young side with 77% of its users in the 15-25 bracket and most of its users come from India with 225 million users.

Monetization: Streamers who meet the requirements for YouTube’s Partner Program can monetize their channel. Viewers can support the streamer in two ways: Super Chats which are donations that accompany highlighted messages the streamer can view, or with membership to the channel which comes with a monthly subscription fee. Becoming a member of a channel also grants access to exclusive content that the streamer can release for members. Ad revenue is also enabled once a channel is monetized. Ads on YouTube pay a little more compared to Twitch at around $3 - $5 per 1000 views. YouTube takes about 30% of membership fees and super chats.

Facebook joined the livestreaming game the latest in 2016, and its specific gaming platform – Facebook Gaming – came even later in 2018. It started its life as FB.gg which was an independent gaming hub for streaming games. In 2019, this was converted into a tab on the main Facebook app. It released a new gaming mobile app in 2020. Something that differentiates FBGG from the competition is that they allow partnered streamers to play some copyright music as background music in their streams – which is huge considering the debacles of DMCA takedowns that plague Twitch and YouTube. Facebook Gaming, however, has plenty of additional features besides streaming because of how it first launched. It also contains all the games available on Facebook.

Founding: 2016 (live streaming), 2018 (Facebook Gaming)

Popular streamers: Disguised Toast (Switched over from Twitch), KingSlayer, DooM64.

Growth: There aren’t a lot of statistics available since Facebook Gaming is new, but it reached an all-time high of 527k average viewers in January 2021, an upward trend that has been growing since 2020.

Monetization: Although it’s not available globally, creators on Facebook Gaming in certain countries can qualify for monetization through FBGG’s Level Up Program. Viewers can support streamers in two ways: Facebook Stars which function similarly to Twitch’s bits, or with monthly subscriptions. In a surprising move, however, the company announced that Facebook won’t take a cut from any streamer revenue until 2023. (Note: services like Apple or Google could still take a cut of revenue from the app). It also promised that when it does start taking part of the revenue, it won’t be more than 30%.

Viewers across all platforms watched livestreams for a total of 8.26 billion hours in 2020. YouTube saw its viewership nearly double while Facebook Gaming saw an increase of triple its viewership. Some analysts predict that 82% of all internet use will be for streaming videos by 2022, which is great news for livestreaming. No matter where you watch your gaming, whether it’s Twitch, YouTube, or Facebook Gaming – livestreaming is here to stay.