YouTube Took Half of a Livestream Viewing Record: 31.4B Hours

The livestream viewing record fell this spring. Viewers watched 31.4 billion hours of live content across the major platforms during the second quarter of 2026, the biggest quarterly total the industry has ever posted, according to analytics firm Streams Charts. The total was up roughly eight percent from the first quarter, and most of the gains flowed to one company, as reported by What's Trending.

That company was YouTube. The platform accounted for about 15.6 billion hours watched over the three months, a jump of 14.8 percent from the previous quarter, which gave it 49.5 percent of all tracked livestream viewing. The platform also recently let users build their own feeds, as GenZNewz reported. The surge was powered by sports: the World Cup played out largely on YouTube, and non-gaming content on the platform grew 19.6 percent from the first quarter, two trends that built the livestream viewing record.

World Cup streams powered YouTube's quarter

A single channel explains much of YouTube's lead. Brazilian broadcaster CazéTV's official World Cup coverage generated more than a billion hours watched on its own, according to Streams Charts, the single biggest contribution to the livestream viewing record. Gaming on YouTube moved the other way: hours watched in the gaming category dropped 12.4 percent as esports tournaments spread across more platforms.

Measured on its own, the tournament was enormous. Streams Charts recorded more than 1.1 billion hours watched across livestreaming platforms during the World Cup's group stage alone, the largest livestreaming event the firm has ever tracked, according to an analysis by LiveMode, the company behind CazéTV. YouTube accounted for more than 94 percent of that watch time. On June 22, CazéTV's Brazil vs. Haiti broadcast peaked at 16.1 million connected devices at once, a fresh global record for a single stream.

The shift showed up in national viewing figures too. Comparing Brazil's national team first five matches in the 2022 and 2026 tournaments, the estimated combined peak audience across broadcast television and streaming grew from 43.7 million to 53.2 million, LiveMode's analysis found. Peak simultaneous devices watching CazéTV's free YouTube broadcasts more than tripled between tournaments, rising from an average of 5.3 million to 17.4 million per Brazil match, a 229 percent increase. Streaming's growth more than offset a decline in traditional free-to-air television audiences.

Twitch holds third as Kick closes the gap

Behind YouTube, TikTok LIVE ranked second with 8.9 billion hours watched, roughly 28 percent of the tracked market. Twitch followed in third at 4.3 billion hours, about 14 percent, while Kick landed fourth with 1.6 billion hours, or around five percent. Kick was the fastest riser of the four, growing 7.6 percent from the first quarter. Twitch still generated roughly three times as many hours as Kick, though that gap has narrowed from roughly five times a year earlier. The distance between YouTube and the rest is what defines the livestream viewing record.

Twitch did not carry official World Cup broadcasts, so its quarter was defined by creators rather than the tournament. May was the platform's strongest month, driven by creator-led tournaments hosted by streamer Nicholas "Jynxzi" Stewart, who finished as Twitch's most-watched streamer of the quarter, according to the What's Trending report. Summer Game Fest broadcasts in June pushed Twitch past 4.4 million concurrent viewers, its highest peak in 11 months. Twitch has also been tightening how creators get paid, as GenZNewz reported.

Esports still gave Twitch something to point to. Tournament and league hours on the platform grew 22.4 percent in the quarter, with events including the IEM Cologne Major, the LCK, and VALORANT Masters, according to Shane the Gamer's research breakdown of the Streams Charts data, though not enough to dent YouTube's lead in the livestream viewing record. YouTube, meanwhile, has been loosening monetization for reaction streamers, as GenZNewz reported.

One caveat sits behind the headline number. Measurement firm Stream Hatchet only began including TikTok Live in its industry totals in 2026, and when TikTok is stripped out of its figures, quarterly viewership was essentially flat, rising just 0.2 percent from the previous quarter, according to that firm's 2025 yearly report as summarized by Shane the Gamer. The livestream viewing record stands, but part of what makes it a record is that more platforms are being counted than before.

The livestream viewing record describes a livestreaming economy with two centers of gravity: appointment sports and entertainment, where YouTube now wins by carrying the biggest events, and gaming culture, where Twitch still leads its direct rivals but keeps losing ground. The next quarterly report will show whether YouTube can hold its share without a World Cup on the schedule.

You can read the full breakdown at What's Trending and Shane the Gamer's research desk.