YouTube Live may not be near the level of streaming juggernaut Twitch, but it is making headway in it’s efforts to be competitive.
According to a 2019 first quarter report written by Streamlabs and Newzoo, YouTube Live’s viewership rose to 24% of Twitch’s viewership during that period, adding that “On average, live streamers on YouTube Gaming Live experience 26 more viewers per channel compared to Twitch.” And: “With 52 hours watched for an average stream, YouTube Gaming Live has the highest hours streamed to hours watched ratio compared to other platforms.”
Furthermore; “Average concurrent viewers on Twitch increased 9% QoQ [Quarter on Quarter], ending Q1 with 1.25 million average CCV.”
“Twitch is still the market leader by a significant amount — more than four times YouTube Gaming Live’s size — but YouTube Gaming Live is now seeing the same accelerated rate of growth that we first saw in 2016–2017. YouTube’s decision to merge YouTube Gaming Live and YouTube Gaming Live into one product seems to be working really well.”