Global esports viewership has been rising consistently in recent years. As the audience grows, it’s also spreading out across various livestreaming platforms. Twitch remains the go-to hub for PC gaming content, especially among Western viewers. Meanwhile, YouTube has carved out a strong presence in the mobile esports scene, with particularly high engagement from users in Southeast Asia and Latin America.
So, how did these two giants stack up in Q1 2025?
On Twitch, the leading esports title pulled in nearly double the Hours Watched (HW) compared to YouTube’s top performer. But the real story lies beyond the number one spot. While Twitch had six games surpassing 10 million hours of watchtime, YouTube had eight. And although Twitch claimed the single most-watched title, YouTube’s other games generally performed better across the board. In total, YouTube games brought in more HW overall than those on Twitch, highlighting the platform’s growing edge in broader esports coverage.
When comparing individual games across Twitch and YouTube, Counter-Strike clearly stood out as the most-watched esports title in Q1 2025. It topped the charts on Twitch with close to 100 million Hours Watched and ranked third on YouTube with just over 40 million. This dominance didn’t come as a surprise — while seasons for many other games were still ramping up, CS had already hit full stride with a calendar packed with top-tier events. The biggest highlight of the quarter was IEM Katowice 2025, which drew the highest peak viewership on both platforms.