TikTok LIVE Hits a Record, Kick Surges 30%, and Twitch Holds On: Streaming in Q3 2026

Ten years ago, "watching games online" mostly meant Twitch. In the third quarter of 2026, Twitch was the third-biggest live-streaming platform in the world, behind a video site and a short-video app, and growing more slowly than a rival that did not exist until 2022.

According to the analytics firm Streams Charts, viewers watched a record 31.7 billion hours of live streams across the platforms it tracks between July and September 2026, up 0.8% on the previous quarter. YouTube led with 13.62 billion hours, TikTok LIVE set a platform record with 10.6 billion, Twitch had 4.51 billion and Kick reached a record 2.04 billion. In Korea, Chzzk passed SOOP in hours watched for the first time.

YouTube: the World Cup giant

YouTube's live audience is the biggest, but its quarter was lopsided. Its hours watched fell 13.7% from the second quarter, and its market share fell from 49.5% to 43%. The reason was the end of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. YouTube's peak audience of the quarter, 36.06 million concurrent viewers, came during the final.

Gaming is a smaller part of YouTube live than many assume. YouTube Gaming drew about 1.98 billion hours, about 14.5% of all YouTube live viewing. The most-watched YouTube streamer of the quarter was TheBurntPeanut, with more than 30 million hours.

TikTok LIVE: the quiet giant

The biggest story in the numbers is TikTok LIVE, which grew 19% in the quarter to 10.6 billion hours and a record 33.5% share of the tracked market. Gaming makes up only about 16% of TikTok LIVE viewing; most of it is chatting, shopping and entertainment. But at that scale, even 16% is a large gaming audience.

Twitch and Kick

Twitch had its strongest quarter since mid-2025: 4.51 billion hours, up 4%, and a market share of 14.2%. Gaming is still the heart of the platform, making up about 77% of what people watch. Its most-watched streamer of the quarter was Caedrel, the former pro player and League of Legends co-streamer.

Kick, launched in 2022 and backed by the founders of the online casino Stake, grew fastest: 30.7% to a record 2.04 billion hours and a 6.4% share, its third straight quarter of growth. In the second quarter, Twitch drew about 2.8 times as many hours as Kick; in the third, the gap narrowed to about 2.2 times. Just Chatting and GTA V role-play drove much of Kick's audience. Its top streamer by hours watched was absi, though Streams Charts noted that earlier research had flagged unusual audience patterns on that channel.

Korea: Chzzk takes the lead

Among smaller platforms, four of six tracked by Streams Charts lost viewers, and Bigo LIVE and Rumble lost almost half their audience. The two exceptions were Korean. Chzzk grew 2.1% to 335.2 million hours, its sixth straight quarter of growth, and for the first time edged ahead of SOOP, at 333 million. We tell the full story in our long read on Korea's streaming war.

Why it matters

The live-streaming business is fragmenting. Gaming used to be the centre of live video; now it is one category among many on platforms that also sell products, show sports and host talk shows. For game publishers, that means marketing has to reach players in more places. For streamers, it means more bargaining power, as platforms compete for talent.

WGC's take: Twitch's best quarter in a year is a reminder that dedicated gaming platforms still matter. People who want to watch games for hours still go where the gaming community is. But the fastest growth is elsewhere, and the next big game launch may be watched more on TikTok than on Twitch.