A brand new examine reveals that esports viewership jumped 9% in 2023 in comparison with the earlier yr, however livestreaming’s weekly common viewership dipped throughout that very same interval.

In line with yearly livestreaming tendencies report from FaZe Clan proprietor GameSquare‘s streaming analytics platform Stream Hatchet, 2.5 billion hours of esports occasions have been watched final yr. That knowledge contains a big selection of esports somewhat than simply mainstream occasions, which partly contributes to the year-over-year development.

The bump in esports viewership marks a 92% enhance since 2019.

The primary and second quarters of the yr have been “the best of their respective quarters ever for esports viewership,” with Q2 coming in because the second-highest quarter of all time at 678 million hours watched.

Whereas the weekly common for stay streaming fell 3.3% final yr, that could be a bounce again from the 13.8% drop the weekly common went to between 2021 and 2022. And the 2023 weekly common bests 2020 by 4 million hours.

Further takeaways within the Stream Hatch report present embrace the next:

Stream Hatchet’s full yearly livestreaming tendencies report for 2023 is obtainable right here.

“Continued annual development in esports live-streaming since 2019 displays increasing adoption of esports as a type of media and leisure, whereas the general live-streaming market continues to normalize after a spike in viewership in 2020 related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” GameSquare CEO Justin Kenna stated. “We imagine 2024 will proceed to point out development in esports live-streaming on account of the expansion in co-streaming channels, new worlds being developed in well-liked video games, and big new recreation launches anticipated to happen all year long.”

(Pictured above: Skilled gamer and well-liked streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who’s chief innovation officer of GameSquare.)