Twitch's 2026 report: 8.6 billion viewing hours, and a fight against aggressive chat messages
Twitch has released its first 'State of Gaming' report, showing 8.6 billion viewing hours in eight months even as rivals Kick and YouTube Gaming grow fast. Separately, candy brand Snickers is using Twitch chat in Australia to defuse hostile comments.
Record hours watched in a short span
Streaming platform Twitch has released its annual "State of Gaming" report for 2026, which, according to SuaraGarut.ID, marks the platform's first report of this kind. Between January 1 and September 1, 2026, viewers watched more than 8.6 billion hours of gaming content — roughly equivalent to one hour for every person on Earth, according to Verge Magazine.
Top games and streamers
The five most-watched titles — League of Legends, Counter-Strike, GTA V, Valorant and World of Warcraft — together generated nearly 1.7 billion hours watched. Leading streamers named include Caedrel for League of Legends, Strogo for Counter-Strike and Gofns for Valorant. Horror games also had a strong year: Dead by Daylight, Phasmophobia and Silent Hill f combined for 287 million hours, while sandbox titles, including Minecraft, reached 831 million hours — which Twitch says is 16 times longer than all of recorded human history. Hours watched for indie-tagged content rose 51%.
A surge tied to GTA VI anticipation
SuaraGarut.ID reports that interest in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI was so intense that it briefly disrupted the site's operations — an episode Twitch Chief Product Officer Mike Minton cited as proof of the community's scale. Verge Magazine does not mention this specific incident.
A shifting competitive landscape
While Twitch remains the largest gaming livestreaming platform, SuaraGarut.ID cites market-tracking data showing rivals gaining ground: Kick's hours watched rose 36.7% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2026, reaching 1.34 billion, while YouTube Gaming logged 8.8 billion hours across all of 2025. These figures cover different time periods, so they aren't directly comparable to Twitch's eight-month total.
Snickers turns chat moderation into advertising
Alongside the report, a campaign from candy brand Mars drew attention in Australia. As reported by Tubefilter and SuaraGarut.ID, Snickers has extended its long-running "Feed the Trolls" concept onto Twitch chat: the system flags aggressive messages during AFL and NRL grand final week streams and prompts users to calm down and grab a candy bar before the comment is posted. Streamers Nalopia and Midbeast are part of the activation. SuaraGarut.ID adds that, per a Lonergan Research survey, 87% of Australians admit hunger affects their behavior.
