The most watched streamers and games of 2023 on Twitch have been released. The streaming platform has undergone a significant transformation in recent years: new faces and old games lead the charts.
Where do the data come from? The website Stream Elements published a report on Twitch in November and for the entire year on December 20, 2023. It contains statistics on watch time as well as the most watched streamers and games of the year.
One thing is clear: Twitch is now much more than just US content.
For 3 years, he was number 1 on Twitch:
Twitch is very different today than it was 5 years ago
What has changed on Twitch? There has been a significant transformation on the streaming platform in recent years. Looking at the top 100 from 2018, the first 19 spots are exclusively English-speaking channels.
For individuals, it seemed significantly more challenging to keep up with the official event channels from Riot and Blizzard back then. And the streamers who could do it were predominantly white male North Americans.
Just 5 years later, the list looks completely different. In addition to English-speaking streamers, the top 10 now includes content creators streaming in Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and even German. Because with Eliasn97, a German streamer has made it among the most watched streamers of the year. This is the first time this has happened in the 7 years for which these statistics can be retrospectively accessed on Sullygnome.
After 3 years of xQc’s reign, Twitch has a new face in 2023: Kai Cenat has dethroned the former Overwatch pro after surpassing him in paid subscriptions in September 2022.
With his subathon in February 2023, Kai Cenat broke 2 records on Twitch and amassed 43 million watched hours. This even caught the attention of musician Drake.
On the other hand, xQc, who has split his time between both streaming platforms since his $70 million deal with Kick, now lands in a comparatively distant 4th place.
New faces and old online games dominate Twitch
Who are the winners on Twitch? The big winner is probably Kai Cenat. The 22-year-old started streaming in 2021, already landed in the top 100 in 2022, and is now the most watched streamer of the year.
Eliasn97 also made a similarly steep rise: he started streaming in April 2020, and two years later dethroned MontanaBlack at the top of German Twitch. Now he has made it into the top 10 worldwide.
His success is not a coincidence: the 26-year-old has already stated in the past that he wants to “go all out” for a few years in order to be able to retire early and lead a relaxed life. That’s why he is now hosting elaborate events and doing streaming marathons.
In terms of streamed categories, newcomers are significantly less represented than in games. “Just Chatting” ranks far ahead as the most viewed category, followed by classics: League of Legends is the most viewed game, followed by GTA V.
Minecraft, Counter-Strike, and Fortnite are still enduring staples on Twitch even after years, and the good old World of Warcraft is currently back to being a real crowd-puller.
Among the new games, Diablo 4 surprisingly pushes ahead of Hogwarts Legacy and Baldur’s Gate 3. The complete statistics can be found on Stream Elements.
How was the year for Twitch itself? 2023 wasn’t necessarily an easy year for Twitch: the new competing site Kick launched and started aggressively poaching stars from Twitch. Furthermore, the streaming platform was repeatedly criticized, as streamers felt not adequately supported and viewers complained about the content and policies of Twitch.
Nevertheless, the year ends for Twitch solidly, with a peak of daily watched hours in November 2023. The figures for the ongoing month of December are not included in the statistics. It remains to be seen if the streaming platform can surpass itself once again.
