The latest report from StreamElements, a streaming production gaming, asks a huge question for the current state of game streaming; “Has Fortnite Peaked?” The report looks at the figures behind the number of hours watched on different platforms, and the monthly performance, and those figures seem to suggest that the popularity of Fortnite streaming has begun to decline.
Fortnite is Stagnating on All Platforms
Since April of this year, the overall number of Fortnite streaming hours watched has increased from just below 400 million to just over. However, this figure peaked in August at over 430 million and has been declining steadily since. It’s worth noting that the number of hours watched has increased by around 13-14% when you look at smaller channels between Q2 and Q3 (those in the 10,000th to 1,000th window for popularity). Meanwhile, the number of hours watched for the top 100 Fortnite streaming channels has been stagnant. None of these channels have seen significant growth or decline; between Q2 and Q3 of 2018, the number of hours viewed on these channels went down by just 0.31%.
Fortnite is still the most watched game on Twitch and faces little serious competition in that arena. However, total views are declining. Views peaked in July when fans watched 151.9 million hours of Fortnite streaming on the platform. However, that figure has declined to just 105.8 million in September, the lowest figure since February, when the game’s popularity was on the rise and growing from under 50 million hours watched in January. There were 20 million fewer hours watched in August, and a further 25 million fewer hours watched in September.
Competition Between Epic Games and Activision/Blizzard
Fortnite isn’t the only game on Twitch with declining viewership. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds saw a 23% drop in Q3, while Overwatch saw their hours watched drop by 25%. Meanwhile, CS:GO saw an increase of 40%, while World of Warcraft saw an enormous increase of 232%. Activision/Blizzard publishes five of the twenty top streaming games on Twitch. For the first time since February, total hours watched for their games exceeded those of Fortnite in September. It’s worth noting, of course, that Fortnite remains a powerhouse while Activision/Blizzard relies on a more diverse portfolio including World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and Destiny 2.
On a more general topic, eSports continues to make up a minority of hours watched on Twitch. The number of hours watched for eSports has remained stable throughout the year, rarely rising or falling significantly from around 100 million hours per month. This makes up just 9 – 17% of the overall Twitch viewership. Streamers attract around 8x more hours watched per month, on average. Interestingly, IRL streaming has been growing consistently throughout 2018; rising from #7 to #3. However, this has prompted Twitch to break the category down into multiple sub-categories.