Amid COVID-19, people unsurprisingly turned to watching a lot of video for entertainment. YouTube Gaming in particular touts its “biggest year, ever” in 2020.
As part of over 40 million active gaming channels, some 80,000 of those creators reached 100,000 subscribers this year. That reflects continued growth for the content type on YouTube and compares to 35 million people last year uploading a gaming video.
More than 1,000 channels have 5 million subscribers, while 350 creators have 10 million. All that has contributed to over 100 billion hours of gaming-related content consumed on YouTube in 2020. This includes “events that pivoted to digital,” livestreams, and VOD content.
Video game livestreams come in at 10 billion hours, with the Google video site making note of the exclusive streaming deals that it has signed. Publishers have also been using YouTube Premieres to make announcements.
YouTube has compiled some “top” lists, with Minecraft having the most views — at 201 billion — in the “global top overall games watched of 2020” ranking. It’s also the top “live games watched.”
| Global top overall games watched | Top 5 live games watched |
| Minecraft: 201B views | Minecraft |
| Roblox: 75B views | Garena Free Fire |
| Garena Free Fire: 72B views | Fortnite |
| Grand Theft Auto V: 70B views | Grand Theft Auto V |
| Fortnite: 67B views | PUBG Mobile |
There are also specific channel callouts:
| Top creators by gaming views | Breakout creators of 2020 (no order): |
| FGTeeV (USA) | Valkyrae |
| Jelly (Netherlands) | Corpse Gaming |
| Flamingo (USA) | Dream |
| Robin Hood Gamer (Brazil) | GeorgeNotFound |
| ItsFunnneh (Canada) | EddieVR |
| LazarBeam (Australia) | Tiko |
| Slogo (Great Britain) | iBerleezy |
| Mikecrack (Spain) | KreekCraft |
| Arab Games Network (BH) | Gattu |
| Vegetta777 (Spain) | NotYourAverageFlight |
Looking at the year ahead, Stadia could play a big role in more videos and creators as simple direct-to-YouTube livestreaming launches and lowers the barrier for entry.
More about YouTube:
- YouTube surveying Premium members about their favorite subscription feature
- YouTube will try to remind people to be decent human beings in the comments section
- YouTube Music rolling out a straightforward ‘2020 Year in Review’ playlist
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