WASHINGTON: More people watched gaming content on YouTube in 2020 than ever before as part of its global outreach, according to the latest statistics released by the company.
According to YouTube Gaming head Ryan Wyatt, about 100 billion hours of gaming content were watched in 2020 on the video-sharing site, twice the number of 2018′s viewed hours.
This stems from YouTube’s outreach in Southeast Asia and Latin America, as well as the rise of prominent e-sports contests now being streamed on YouTube. Over 10 billion of those hours were of YouTube Gaming live streams. YouTube also found a huge market for mobile game streaming as it scoured the globe.
This explosion in mobile is reflected in YouTube’s end-of-the-year statistics.  Minecraft was the most-watched game on YouTube by a large margin, with more than 200 billion views of Minecraft live streams and uploaded video watched this year.
The next most-watched game on the platform was Roblox with 75 billion views, and the top five are rounded out by mobile battle royale Garena Free Fire (72 billion), Grand Theft Auto V (70 billion), and Fortnite (67 billion).
Wyatt said that in some countries, creators cannot just rely on ad revenue, which is why YouTube added channel subscriptions and allowed creators to set their own prices.
YouTube has also become more serious about streaming events, partnering with the biggest e-sports companies like Riot Games to host tournaments on the platform. The site’s biggest streamers were all international stars, like NOBRU from Brazil with 11.5 million subscribers, or SOUL Regaltos in India with a million.
We just had our best year ever @YouTubeGaming, and it’s thanks to YOU. The Creators, Publishers, and Gamers watching every day who have made YouTube Gaming the largest Gaming platform in the world.
But just how big of a year was it? Let’s take a look: https://t.co/tLC4ezvUx4 pic.twitter.com/QQ9I2Vw3s6
— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) December 8, 2020
YouTube has also seen smaller creators have larger success in the past year. More than 80,000 creators hit 100,000 subscribers, no small feat for any channel on YouTube. More than 350 creators have more than 10 million subscribers.
The biggest gaming videos on YouTube also had a global reach. Some of these videos amassed hundreds of millions of views, like Taiwan-based channel Yes Ranger’s ‘Minecraft POV’ video, which accrued 197 million views.
One of the reasons why gaming content has likely surged in 2020 is the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has sent online entertainment through the roof for activities like streaming TV and multiplayer gaming.
