Few fans of streaming platforms including Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube would be surprised in hearing that streaming content is dominated by creators who identify as men. Whether it's xQc, Ninja, or even when PhantomL0rd topped Twitch in 2014, men have always been the most prominent streaming creators online. In recent years, it may seem like there's been some shift as ironmouse, Amouranth, fuslie, Pokimane, and other women have gained popularity. But according to one report, progress has been greatly overstated.A recent quarterly report issued by Stream Hatchet analyzed current top streamers across Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube. The analysis found that, of the top 100 streamers across all platforms at the moment, only one identifies as a woman. That means that 99 out of the top 100 streamers across the industry's most popular western streaming platforms are men. The ranking is based on total hours watched in the second quarter of 2022.The one woman to break into the top 100 streaming creators of Q2 2022 is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Amouranth. Stream Hatchet's analysis places Amouranth in the position of #56 out of the top 100 streamers. For comparison, both xQc and Amouranth streamed around the same amount of hours in total. xQc accrued an astonishing 70.6 million hours watched by viewers, while Amouranth's total was 8.2 million hours watched. xQc is notably the top streamer of the past quarter.
Amouranth is also by far the most watched woman on streaming platforms. She has nearly double the total hours watched as the second-most watched woman, Pokimane, who had 4.5 million hours watched during the last quarter. After Pokimane, the top 10 women streamers include Miko, Valkyrae, and Pekora, who are all on YouTube. Then there's Jinnytty, saddummy, fuslie, Kyedae, and ironmouse, who are all on Twitch. Ironmouse, who rounds out the top 10, had 3.3 million hours watched.
As is clear from the list of top 10 women streamers, women tend to find popularity on streaming services in ways that men don't. While top men largely play games for the majority of their content, women find success with Let's Chat/IRL streams or other forms of social content. Miko, Pekora, and ironmouse have found success as Vtubers, mixing games with singing and other variety content. That's not to say that women aren't finding success playing games on Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube, too, but it's clearly challenging to do so.
One subject that Stream Hatchet's analysis does not touch on is whether viewership of women on streaming platforms is increasing quarter to quarter. In many ways, media coverage of streaming platforms makes it seem like women are increasingly popular on Twitch, Facebook, and YouTube. Clearly, there's a lot of room to grow, but it's at the very least possible that change is happening. Without more data that's hard to say with certainty, though.