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Twitch users, including streamers and viewers from all around the world, contribute to the platform's vast diversity of gaming content. However, certain genres are more popular with Twitch’s audience than others. For this article, Stream Charts analyzed which types of gaming content Twitch users preferred in Q2 2024.
Many games span multiple genres, so this article includes their data in several categories. For instance, GTA V is listed under the Shooter, Adventure, and Racing genres. Other games may have even more genres. For this analysis, we used the genres specified in the game's section on IGDB.com.
Top-10 game genres on Twitch, Q2 2024
The most popular genre on Twitch in the second quarter of 2024 was Shooters, generating over 1.67 billion Hours Watched. Notably, this genre includes two key esports titles —Counter-StrikeandValorant— which are actively streamed on Twitch and have large fan bases. Other top Shooter games includeFortnite andCall of Duty.
Adventure ranked second, with over 1.61 billion HW on Twitch in Q2 2024. Adventure is one of the broadest genres in the gaming industry, encompassing most modern games with any kind of storyline.
RPGs are also very popular, often seen in single-player titles or MMO games. In the second quarter, RPGs generated 1.4 billion HW, significantly boosted by games likeElden RingandWorld of Warcraft.
Strategy is another broad genre, applicable to most modern titles involving team interactions. Games like League of Legends and Dota 2 fall into this category. Strategy was the fourth and final genre on Twitch to surpass 1 billion HW in Q2 2024.
Simulation rounds out the top five, with 631 million HW over three months. This genre now includes not only sports games but also various building simulators.
Tactical is another genre commonly found in esports. Unlike Strategy, Tactical often overlaps with Shooters like Valorant, Counter-Strike, and Rainbow Six. In Q2 2024, Tactical games generated over 612 million HW.
Seventh place, with 462 million HW for the quarter, went to the MOBA genre. This primarily includes esports titles like League of Legends, Dota 2, andSmite.
Mobile titles accounted for 450.7 million HW on Twitch over the Q2. Slightly fewer HW were generated by Driving/Racing games.
Indie games complete the top ten. This broad category includes projects with relatively small budgets from small studios. In the past quarter, one standout Indie game wasChained Together, which became very popular among the Twitch streaming community.
Game modes and PEGI rankings on Twitch, Q2 2024
In Q2 2024, Twitch viewers primarily watched streams of Multiplayer games, which collectively garnered over 3.1 billion HW. This category includes nearly all esports titles, making their dominance unsurprising.
Single-player narrative games ranked second, with 2.24 billion HW. Cooperative games ranked third, with 2.2 billion HW on Twitch in Q2 2024.
Overall, Twitch viewers prefer games where players compete and interact with each other rather than with NPCs. However, there is also a specific category of games, such as Souls-like titles, that enjoy significant popularity among the audience.
Analyzing the distribution of games by PEGI age rating is also interesting. Although not all games have this rating indicated on Twitch, most popular titles do.
In the second quarter of 2024, games with a PEGI 18 rating garnered the most watch time. This category includes games with elements of violence, strong language, explicit sexual content, scenes of smoking, drug use, nudity, gambling, and more. Almost all of these elements can be found in GTA V, the most popular game on Twitch. Additionally, many Shooter games, such as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, and Rainbow Six, have a PEGI 18 rating.
Following closely are titles with a PEGI 12 rating, which accumulated over 868 million HW in the quarter. This rating includes many MOBA and MMO games, such as League of Legends, Overwatch 2, and World of Warcraft.
PEGI 16 games feature elements that are similar to those prohibited in PEGI 18 but without visible realism. For example, this rating applies to fantasy shooters likeValorant,Apex Legends, andDestiny 2. PEGI 16 games amassed over 775.3 million HW in Q2 2024.
PEGI 3 and PEGI 7are child-friendly ratings with minimal restrictions. PEGI 3 games are suitable for all children and usually include most sports simulators, such as EA Sports FC 24, TrackMania, and NBA 2K24. PEGI 7 games allow for elements like unrealistic explosions and destruction. This category includes games like Roblox, World of Tanks, and Minecraft.
Top-10 game engines by total games HW on Twitch, Q2 2024
Games using Unreal Engine generated over 709 million HW on Twitch. Notable titles include Valorant, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Wuthering Waves, Fortnite, Dead by Daylight, Rocket League, and many more. Note that all versions of Unreal Engine are included in the statistics.
RAGE is the 2nd-leading game engine, with its games generating over 380 million HW in Q2 2024. This engine powers Rockstar's hits, including GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Sourceis esteemed in the rankings thanks to Valve's esports titles, such as Counter-Strike and Dota 2. The first version of Source is used in Apex Legends. Unity engine games amassed over 320 million HW, with popular titles likeRust,Hearthstone, andEscape from Tarkov.
The popular shooter Call of Duty: Warzone runs on the proprietary IW 9.0 engine, developed by Infinity Ward specifically for this franchise.
Lightweight Java Game Library and Frostbitealso made the top ten. The former is well-known toMinecraftfans, while Frostbite is used in many Electronic Arts titles, such asEA Sports FC 24andStar Wars Battlefront II. At the end of the rating are the engines familiar to fans of Rainbow Six,Street Fighter 6, andDestiny 2.
Top-10 game franchises by Hours Watched on Twitch, Q2 2024
Many popular games belong to large franchises with rich histories and numerous titles. Sometimes, a franchise’s success hinges on just one standout game, but this isn’t always the case.
In Q2 2024, the most-watched franchise on Twitch was Grand Theft Auto, primarily due to GTA V, which accumulated 368 million hours of viewing. GTA V is a dominant force within the franchise, with other titles contributing less than 1% of the total HW.
In second place was the League of Legends franchise, which garnered 335.5 million HW. The vast majority of this total, about 88%, came from the core MOBA game, while the rest was split among Teamfight Tactics, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and Legends of Runeterra.
Counter-Strike claimed the third spot with 156 million HW. This impressive figure was almost entirely driven by Counter-Strike 2, though older versions like Counter-Strike 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source were also occasionally streamed.
Dota 2 followed Counter-Strike, securing its place in the top five. As another major esports title from Valve, Dota 2's high viewing figures are largely attributed to tournament broadcasts, similar to League of Legends and Counter-Strike.
Rounding out the top five was the Call of Duty franchise, which generated over 124 million hours of viewing. This success was mainly due to Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. The Warcraft franchise came next with over 99.2 million HW, with more than 60% of this total coming from broadcasts of World of Warcraft.
In seventh place was the Pokémon franchise, which accumulated over 25.3 million HW. Approximately 25% of this total was from Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, the current leading title in the franchise. Pokémon’s extensive list of games means it lacks a single standout title like Grand Theft Auto or the top esports games.
The Fallout universe also saw significant attention, with nearly 25 million HW. The release of the Prime Video TV series spurred increased interest, leading viewers to watch more streams of Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.
The Super Mario franchise from Nintendo had a similar viewing total to Fallout. With a large number of titles contributing to this total,Super Mario 64was the most viewed in Q2 2024, accounting for about 18% of the total 24.9 million HW.
The Final Fantasy franchise, known for its extensive list of games, saw Final Fantasy XIV Online emerge as the top title for the quarter, contributing 65% of the franchise's total HW.
