Twitch: 292 billion minutes viewed in 2016, Overwatch the most watched new game
Twitch has released a retrospective on 2016, detailing some of the streaming platform’s stats.
Notably, the amount of time we’ve all spent watching people play games on the platform is up. Way up. In 2015, we watched more than 241 billion minutes (almost 460 years) of Twitch programming. 2016 saw that number climb to 292 billion minutes (over 555 years).
Unsurprisingly, Overwatch is the most-watched new game of the year, which makes sense considering it’s the highest profile esports-focused release of 2016. Plus, it’s got that whole Blizzard thing behind it.
Other stats include 2.2 million unique streamers utilizing Twitch over the year, 14.2 billion chat messages sent (up from 9.1 billion last year) , and more than a million free subscriptions used.
I have two favorite stats on the list for two very different reasons. Obviously the $25.3 million raised for charity is an amazing upgrade over the $17.4 million last year. But you stream monsters dropped more than just cash. You also let loose with 413 million Kappas, making that gray face far and away the most popular emote on the platform. That’s a lot of sarcasm.
Follow Taylor Cocke on Twitter @taylorcocke.
