A packed weekend of esports competition once again pushed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to the top of the channel standings with Dota 2 staying in the mix. Meanwhile Grand Theft Auto V remains firm in its position within the Top Three categories on Twitch.
Twitch’s Top Channel – ESL CS:GO
In back-to-back weekends, CS:GO dominated as the top esport on the channel rankings, but this week ESL’s contest saw a substantial spike in consumption, eclipsing 5M hours watched on the main channel alone.
One other notable standout this week is Chess.com which generated nearly 2M hours watched on its primary channel. Last summer the influencer chess tournament PogChamps helped fuel a surge in chess popularity on the platform that appears to have stayed strong through the new year. The third iteration of PogChamps took place this weekend, reaching a peak viewership of over 100K.
Twitch’s Top Content – Just Chatting
Strong viewership from ESL pushed CS:GO up into the Top Five this week, surpassing 22M hours watched. While much of the Top 10 remains intact week after week, it is worth highlighting the continued presence of Apex Legends.
With 13.59M hours watched, up nearly 2M from the previous week, the game highlights an important point about games with an ongoing content cycle — no game is truly “dead” until its developer stops making new content. After a historic launch, Apex Legends fell out of the Top 10 for some time, but has been able to break through again by continuing to release new characters and events. These updates give players a reason to return to the game for a period of time, and some of those players will then choose to remain part of that community.
Any game that has fallen out of the public consciousness could return at any point with the right mix of new content and influencer interest.
