Credit: Epic/Rockstar/Riot
Grand Theft Auto V and Hearthstone end April with month-over-month increases in viewership, while Apex Legends continues a precipitous decline from the top spot it held in February.
The following titles are ranked according to the total number of hours watched on Twitch 
, from March 1-31, with data compiled using TEO Analytics.
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Year-Over-Year
On the heels of Tyler “Ninja” Blevins’ successes, Fortnite began to dominate Twitch around this time in 2018, but this year, the cartoonish battle royale game hasn’t been nearly as strong with just 77M hours watched in April, down from 107M hours watched last year.
The figure was still enough to make it the second most-watched form of content sitting just behind League of Legends, which saw year-over-year viewership growth due in part to a scheduling change that saw more LoL Championship Series
and LoL European Championship action take place in April.
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Additionally, the boom of Grand Theft Auto V role play viewership has put the game into the upper echelon of Twitch content despite not even making the top 10 list for April of 2018. The game’s 74M hours watched for April alone was more than it had for the entire first half of last year combined, 58.8M hours watched (Jan. 1- June 30).
Top Content: Stealing the Show
Grand Theft Auto V role play streams began its meteoric rise in March as top influencers like Jaryd “Summit1g” Lazar started to play, leading to 57.4M hours watched for the game in March.
That success has continued into April as the game has increased its monthly hours watched total by more than 15M led by Lazar (8.8M), role play streamer “Vader” (3.1M), and former Overwatch streamer “Moonmoon_ow” (3.1M).
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While April was the strongest month so far for GTA V, the game saw a slight decline in viewership toward the tail end of the month as Lazar opted to play other games. Due to the influencer-reliant nature of the game, movement by top streamers could potentially cause a volatile swing in viewership for GTA moving forward.
What’s Trending: Back to Building
Following the decline of Apex Legends, GTA V started to muscle its way into the spotlight on Twitch, but toward the back end of April, Fortnite made a return to the top of Twitch. With help from both World Cup qualifications and a new in-game season that brought along fresh content, Fortnite is again turning into the premier game on Twitch in terms of viewership.
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As trendy games like GTA V, Sea of Thieves, and Apex Legends come in and out of popularity. Fortnite streamers have taken some time off from their main game to try out something new, but so far this spring gamers like Blevins have consistently returned to the battle royale game that helped to grow their channels.
