An analytics website just shared its rankings for the ten most-watched YouTube live streamers of 2022. And while some of these names are not surprising, a few unexpected content creators are topping the charts.Twitch is many people’s go-to live streaming platform, and its most-watched live streamers earned hundreds of millions of hours worth of watch time in 2022. Still, YouTube is no slouch either, with fans watching tens of millions of hours worth of their favorite creator’s content.Streaming analytics website Stream Hatchet announced its 2022 ranking for the most popular gaming streamers on YouTube. The massively popular and often controversial live streamer IShowSpeed took the top spot with about 38.5 million hours watched in 2022. While impressive in its own right, it also represents a significant lead over Japanese Virtual YouTuber Kuzuha, who came in second with about 27.4 million hours. American YouTuber TimTheTatman is close behind with 26.6 million hours watched.
DrDisRespect, who recently made headlines by mocking the most-watched American Twitch channels, had about 25.2 million hours watched, according to Stream Hatchet. This put him squarely in fourth place, just ahead of the Japanese VTuber Pekora and her 23.3 million hours. YouTuber and esports commentator Ludwig earned sixth place with his 22.5 million livestream hours, followed by Indonesian YouTuber Windah Basudara and his 21.9 million hours in seventh. Spanish gaming YouTuber Vegetta777 took eighth place with 20.9 million hours watched, narrowly beating Japanese Virtual YouTuber Miko and her 20.7 million hours. Finally, Spanish Youtuber DjMaRiiO took tenth place thanks to his 20.4 million hours.
While there are a few things that observers can take away from these rankings, one is that Twitch streamers seem to have a definitive edge compared to their YouTube counterparts. For example, 2022’s most watched Twitch streamer, xQc, earned about 224 million hours watched, according to Steam Hatchet. Likewise, Hassan Piker was the most-watched American Twitch streamer with 81.4 million hours, while the most-watched female Twitch streamer Amouranth pulled in 32.06 million hours watched, according to StreamsCharts. By comparison, IShowSpeed’s 38.5 million hours put him just ahead of Twitch’s most-watched American streamer TSM_ImperialHal and his 3.77 million hours watched on the platform.
Other interesting observations include the fact that all but one of the top YouTube live streamers come from either The United States, Japan, or Spain, with the US and Japan dominating the top five. It also helps to showcase the popularity of VTubers, who showed that they are more than capable of holding their own against conventional YouTubers.