GTA Online experienced a massive increase in viewers on Twitch in 2019, with over 200% more people watching streamers play compared to 2018.
What about the Twitch rankings? The rankings of the most-watched games on Twitch at the end of the year initially show the usual suspects dominating: LoL, Fortnite, and other multiplayer games that have established themselves over the years.
However, in 2019, GTA V saw a rapid increase in viewers, securing a spot in the top 3 of Twitch games, with almost 3 times as many viewers compared to 2018. A number that many other games can only dream of.
This trend was already evident at the beginning of the year when there was a sudden surge in viewers in March.
| Genre | Hours Watched in 2019 |
| League of Legends | 990 million (+7%) |
| Fortnite | 884 million (-28%) |
| “Just Chatting” | 651 million (+42%) |
| GTA V | 523 million (+277%) |
| Dota 2 | 458 million (+1%) |
| CS: GO | 397 million (+5%) |
| World of Warcraft | 372 million (+55%) |
| Apex Legends | 294 million (New) |
| Overwatch | 247 million (-6%) |
| Hearthstone | 217 million (-38%) |
Of the games that were released in 2019, only Apex Legends managed to make it into the top 10. All other games are old favorites that have been in the lists of most-watched Twitch games for years.
What are the reasons? In fact, we primarily associate the concept of role-playing with MMORPGs like WoW or Final Fantasy XIV. But it is exactly this role-playing that is responsible for the significant increase in viewer numbers for GTA V.
At the beginning of the year, big streamers like Lirik, Summit1g, or Sodapoppin, who have millions of followers, regularly stream new RP adventures on their channels.
On special RP servers, they roam around as police officers, drug dealers, pickpockets, or bank robbers. The exciting part is that on the role-playing servers, you never know how the person you encounter in the game is going to act. This often leads to cool or funny scenes.
But even smaller streamers gain many viewers for creative ideas and good execution. For instance, a role-player in GTA V held a live concert that thousands watched. There are also many German channels that stream RP content for GTA V. This includes, for example, Bonjwa.
It is obviously fun to watch role-playing in GTA V.
However, sometimes fun turns into serious business:
