TikTok Live captures nearly half of Q1's 17B live streaming hours
Stream Hatchet, a subsidiary of GameSquare, has released its Q1 2026 Live Streaming Trends Report, now incorporating data from TikTok Live. The report finds that global live streaming viewership reached 17 billion hours, with TikTok Live accounting for almost half of the total. Excluding TikTok Live, the market saw a 0.2% increase in hours watched compared to Q4 2025.
Key Takeaways
- With TikTok Live's inclusion, Q1 global live streaming viewership reached 17 billion hours.
- The market excluding TikTok Live saw minimal growth, increasing 0.2% over the previous quarter.
- Event programming drove high concurrency, with the Kings League World Cup Nations hitting a 2.2M peak-viewer high, followed by Sony's State of Play at 2.1M.
- In gaming content, 'World of Warcraft: Midnight' saw a surge while new titles like 'Resident Evil Requiem' and 'Crimson Desert' performed well.
- A 24/7 'PTuber' channel for the game 'ARC Raiders' generated 87.4M hours watched, demonstrating a powerful new format.
Why It Matters
The formal inclusion of TikTok Live data effectively doubles the measured size of the live streaming market, establishing a new, higher benchmark for audience scale. This immediately changes the calculus for advertisers and media buyers trying to reach the largest live audiences. While the data shows the non-TikTok market is stable, its relative share is now much smaller, underscoring TikTok's dominant position in total volume. Watch how viewership for rising 'Extraction Shooter' titles, mentioned as gaining on Fortnite, trends in Q2 as publishers seek the next major gaming hit.
Read full article at accessnewswire.com
Enjoy our coverage?
Add StreamingMeme as a preferred source on Google to see more of our streaming news at the top of your Search results.
Add as preferred source