YouTube’s 2020 statistics show that users of the platform watched over 100 billion hours of gaming content on the platform this year, which is twice the number of hours watched in 2018. Moreover, 10 billion hours out of the 100 billion hours were devoted to watching YouTube Gaming live streams.
We just had our best year ever @YouTubeGaming, and it's thanks to YOU. The Creators, Publishers, and Gamers watching every day who have made YouTube Gaming the largest Gaming platform in the world.
— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) December 8, 2020
But just how big of a year was it? Let's take a look: https://t.co/tLC4ezvUx4 pic.twitter.com/QQ9I2Vw3s6
Other statistical information revealed Minecraft being the most-watched game on YouTube with over 200 billion views of the game’s live streams and uploaded videos watched this year. Following Minecraft was Roblox with 75 billion views. Other games that made it to top 5 were battle royale Garena Free Fire (72 billion), Grand Theft Auto V (70 billion), and Fortnite (67 billion).
According to YouTube, the platform features over 40 million active gaming channels, and 80,000 channels managed to hit 100,000 subscribers this year. There has been a significant rise in subscribers, audiences and viewership throughout 2020. Minecraft’s content creator Dream saw channel subscriptions surge from 1 million in January 2020 to over 13 million by October 2020.
One of the obvious reasons behind the crazy rise of gaming content in 2020 is the coronavirus pandemic, that has had more and more people turning to online entertainment, hence accounting for the increase in activities like streaming TV and multiplayer gaming.
