Trillion minutes watched one of Twitch’s several wild 2020 stats

As much of the world shifted to more time spent at home, Twitch had an absurd statistical year in 2020. From a trillion minutes watched to $83 million raised for charity, Senior Vice President Damian Burns has revealed some of the company’s wildest numbers.

Whether you call it 1 trillion minutes or the (less-glamorous sounding) 16.7 billion hours, of time was spent watching Twitch streams in 2020. This enormous number can be attributed to more indoor leisure time, gaming’s continued growth and the platform’s increased variety of content — no matter how you look at it, that Twitch had a huge year.

Past astronomical viewership numbers, Burns has also revealed astounding streamer and charity statistics. For the former, as more and more people turned to online hobbies and part-time jobs, Twitch saw over 6 million unique streamers each month.

For the latter, the platform raised $83 million in 2020, a whopping 70-percent increase in charity money raised over 2019’s $56 million. From entertaining the masses to helping the world, Twitch’s 2020 statistics are, at the very least, notable.

Twitch’s 2020 statistics

• Average daily visitors: 26.5 million
• Average viewership (at any moment): 2+ million
• Unique streamers per month: 6+ million
• Minutes watched: 1 trillion
• Money raised for charity: $83 million

While it’s obviously hard to draw direct parallels against other streaming services, Twitch’s numbers represent impressive growth and legitimate competition for users’ screen time. 

With Mixer shuttering its services in June 2020, Twitch further cemented itself as the defacto top gamer streaming platform. Coupling that gaming content with a versatile “Just Chatting” section, the site stands alone, tiers above hopeful competitors like Facebook Gaming.

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Interestingly, some vague comparisons can be made to established mainstream streaming services as well. Full data remains unavailable, but Nielsen does have some numbers at hand (via TechCrunch) and Netflix’s top five television shows in the US were watched for 190.5 billion minutes in 2020. That can’t be legitimately compared to Twitch’s all-encompassing, global 1 trillion — but it does demonstrate how big of a player the live-streaming platform has become.

During a year that needed it more than ever, Twitch’s enormous viewership turned into tremendous generosity. Sending over $80 million to charitable causes is a serious accomplishment and one can only hope that the number continues to grow in 2021.

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The sole point of caution inferred from these numbers though? Prepare for a hard road if you want to become a streamer. With over 6 million trying to stream each month, the field is more competitive than ever.