Just Chatting dominates Twitch content as viewership doubles in 2021

A new report has revealed how Just Chatting is taking over Twitch, even as the platform’s total viewership doubled in one year.

With many people still stuck at home for work and school, Twitch viewership hit record new highs in 2021, increasing by nearly one billion total minutes watched.

A big reason for this is the Just Chatting section, which according to Streamlabs, now makes up 12% of Twitch’s total views.

Streamlabs reports that Just Chatting became the most-watched category on Twitch in Q3 2020 with 522 million hours watched. Now, in Q1 2021, that number has grown 44% and ballooned to 754 million hours.

To put this in perspective, Grand Theft Auto V, the most-watched game in 2021 thanks to the resurgence of GTA RP, has 546.3 million hours watched so far.

•  Read More: Dr Disrespect claims his memoir was snubbed on Times bestseller list

The category flips the idea of Twitch as a strictly video game streaming platform on its head, with streamers simply just talking with viewers or engaging in IRL shenanigans.

2021 has also seen the rise of the controversial “hot tub meta” where streamers in the Just Chatting category lounge in pools.

So far in Q1 2021, viewers have watched 6.34 billion hours of content on Twitch. Meanwhile, YouTube Gaming Live trails at 1.37 billion and Facebook is in third with 1.06 billion.

•  Read More: Twitch streamer begs for help after indefinite ban ‘ruins’ his career

“For the first time, we are seeing Facebook Gaming and YouTube Gaming closely compete against each other in terms of viewership,” Ashray Urs, Head of Product at Streamlabs explained.

“While the difference in viewership was approximately 1 billion hours last quarter, that gap has shrunk to about 300 million in Q1. There is a chance we could see Facebook Gaming overtake YouTube Gaming in viewership next quarter.”

The battle for second place is really heating up, which may be a bit surprising considering how YouTube has the likes of Dr Disrespect and the most-watched female streamer in Valkyrae.

It will be fun to see how the platforms fair with plenty of 2021 still to go.