Fortnite reigns across livestreaming services as PUBG interest declines, new report claims

Livestreamers across Twitch, YouTube, and other services streamed more hours in Fortnite: Battle Royale than ever before last quarter, according to new data collected from Streamlabs. Meanwhile, competitor PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is stagnating as streamers gradually decrease their time livestreaming the game.

During last quarter, livestreamers provided over 18.98 million hours’ worth of Fortnite content across Twitch, YouTube, and other livestreaming platforms, according to Streamlabs’ report. In comparison, the second most-streamed game, League of Legends, received just over 3.63 million hours of live content. PUBG lagged behind at third with only 3.24 million hours’ worth of livestreamed footage.

In total, Fortnite‘s livestreaming hours increased by 128 percent this year compared to last. PUBG, on the other hand, has experienced a 30 percent decrease since Q1 2018. Combined with strong competition from rival battle royale titles, Streamlabs believes PUBG’s poor stability has made the game a less viable streaming option for streamers in 2018.

“PUBG is notoriously buggy, hackers are making the game increasingly unplayable, and the servers are unstable,” Streamlabs notes in its report. “Coupled with the fact that the battle royale genre has exploded in recent months and gamers have many more alternatives now, it’s no surprise that PUBG is slipping in popularity.”

Meanwhile, Twitch continues to dominate among streaming platforms. The site saw a 23 percent increase in active livestreamers from Q2 to Q3, with 1.63 million active streamers during 2018’s third quarter. Twitch is the only livestreaming platform to break one million active streamers during Q3, with only 622.9 thousand active streamers on the second best-performing gaming livestream platform, YouTube.

Streamlabs also claims that 40 percent of Twitch streamers used Streamlabs OBS, the company’s broadcasting platform, over the past nine months. The company’s active user count broke two million during Q3 and experienced a 20 percent increase from the last quarter, pointing to a burgeoning livestreaming industry with no stop in sight.

“This year, our research has shown that livestreaming has become a $10.1 billion industry with over 15 million livestreamers, and it is only getting bigger,” Streamlabs claims in its report. “In 2019, we predict it will reach $13.1 billion with over 19 million livestreamers.”

The livestreaming industry isn’t the only one taken over by Fortnite’s unstoppable popularity. In Nintendo’s six-month financial briefing for 2018’s fiscal year, the company praised Fortnite, stating that the game is “boosting the overall utilization ratio of Nintendo Switch.” Nintendo also claimed the game “has been downloaded to nearly half of all Nintendo Switch systems worldwide,” making it one of the most popular titles on the Switch to date.