YouTube Gaming reaches all-time high at more than 100 billion watch hours in a year

It would seem that YouTube is thriving during the pandemic, most especially since YouTube Gaming has reached more than 100 billion watch hours in just one year.

YouTube Gaming head Ryan Wyatt, in a tweet, said that YouTube Gaming had the best year ever. He emphasised that the success was because of the users. He mentioned the creators, publishers and gamers who watch every day and who made it possible for YouTube Gaming to be the "largest gaming platform in the world."

In a blog post, Wyatt revealed that not only did YouTube Gaming reach more than 100 billion watch hours in 2020 but also that it had more than 40 million active gaming channels.

Wyatt said that more than 80,000 YouTube Gaming creators hit 100,000 subscribers. He also mentioned that more than 1,000 gaming creators hit five million subscribers. In addition, more than 350 gaming creators reached a much-coveted 10 million subscribers.

Aside from this, Wyatt also said that live streaming on YouTube had a really great year. They have seen how watch-time from video game live streams increased and reached more than 10 billion hours.

Some of the creators that Wyatt mentioned were LazarBeam, Lyna, MortaL, CouRage, TheDonato and Typical Gamer. He also noted how a female live streamer, Valkyrae grew as one of the most successful streamers.

The top five overall games that were watched in 2020 include Minecraft, Roblox, Garena Free Fire, Grand Theft Auto V, and Fortnite. For the live games that were watched in 2020, the most popular include Minecraft, Garena Free Fire, Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, PUBG Mobile.

Across the board, creators have seen a massive increase in their subscribers and viewership. Notable among those who saw a huge leap in terms of subscribers was the creator Dream. In a single year, from having one million subscribers in January of 2020, it went up to 13 million in October.

Many of the creators also made efforts and helped in raising money for a number of causes. For instance, Jacksepticeye raised over $660,000 in a matter of 12 hours, all for the benefit of Covid-19 relief efforts. Another is CouRage, who was able to raise half a million in a charity stream, which ran for 12 hours too. CouRage's recipient was the CDC Foundation.

Indeed, 2020 has been a great year for YouTube gaming. With more individuals turning to gaming, the platform may see a good trend in the coming year.

YouTube Gaming