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Twitch’s reported 2024 figures put Grand Theft Auto V first among games by hours watched, while VTuber streams grew year over year. Together, the trends point to a platform increasingly shaped by persistent worlds, recognizable creator identities and collaborative communities—not just by the newest game release.
What Twitch’s 2024 figures actually measured
The ranking discussed in reporting published on April 24, 2025, is a ranking by hours watched, according to figures Twitch reported and VentureBeat cited. That is different from peak concurrent viewers, average concurrent viewers, hours streamed or the number of active channels. Hours watched can favor categories with long broadcasts, many participating channels, persistent communities and major events.
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The underlying official Twitch end-of-year dataset and a complete methodology were not located in the available reporting, so the figures below should be read as reported Twitch numbers rather than independently audited statistics.
| Game | Reported 2024 hours watched | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Theft Auto V | More than 1.4 billion | Reported Twitch figure cited by VentureBeat |
| League of Legends | Approximately 1.19 billion | Reported figure; not independently audited in the available sources |
| Valorant | Approximately 804 million | Reported figure; not independently audited in the available sources |
| Fortnite | Approximately 539 million | Reported figure; not independently audited in the available sources |
Twitch’s reported total for GTA V also exceeded 25.8 million hours streamed during 2024. That number describes broadcast supply, while hours watched describes viewing demand; neither figure alone tells you how many unique people watched or how much money creators earned.
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A secondary summary from SMARTmania repeats the game totals. The available sources do not establish whether Twitch has since revised them or exactly how every GTA V format was classified.
Why GTA V remains a streaming environment, not just an old game
GTA V’s durability is easier to understand when the game category is treated as a live entertainment system. The base game supplies a recognizable city and rules, but creators and communities continually generate the programming.
Roleplay creates serialized live television
Roleplay servers let streamers build characters, jobs, rivalries and institutions. Police stops, heists, courtroom disputes and ordinary conversations can become episodes in an ongoing story. Viewers return to see what happens to a familiar character, not merely to watch someone complete a mission.
Roleplay is a plausible explanation for much of GTA V’s strength, but the reported totals do not separate roleplay from ordinary gameplay, events, speedrunning or other formats. It should therefore be treated as interpretation rather than a measured causal finding.
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- Includes the complete grand Theft Auto V story experience
One event can support many channels
A shared in-game incident can be followed from several creators’ perspectives. That multi-channel structure gives audiences reasons to move between streams and lets collaborations expand a story without requiring every viewer to know the game’s mechanics.
Age is an advantage when the community supplies novelty
A new release often depends on a launch window. GTA V can generate fresh situations indefinitely because servers, characters and relationships change even when the underlying software does not. Clips of an unexpected chase or argument can also introduce the format to people who have never played the game.
The game is accessible as drama
Viewers can understand a conflict, negotiation or comic failure without mastering controls. That lowers the entry barrier and makes GTA V useful as a stage for personality-led entertainment.
What the VTuber numbers mean—and what they do not
VentureBeat reported that VTuber streams increased 10% year over year in hours watched. It also reported a 200% increase for British VTubers, identifying the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom as important markets.
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- Grand Theft Auto V blends storytelling and gameplay in new ways as players repeatedly jump in and out of the lives of the game's three lead characters, playing all sides of the game's interwoven story.
- Grand Theft Auto V also comes with Grand Theft Auto Online, the dynamic and ever-evolving Grand Theft Auto universe for multiple players.
VTuber is a creator format or identity category, not a single game. A VTuber may stream games, Just Chatting, music, art, events or collaborations, so the figure cannot be compared directly with GTA V’s game-category total as though they were the same unit.
- The report does not provide the denominator or absolute audience size behind the British 200% figure.
- A 200% rise from a small base can represent fewer additional hours than a 10% rise in a much larger market.
- The available figures do not show whether growth came from more VTuber channels, larger audiences per creator, longer broadcasts, major events or changes in classification.
- Growth in total hours does not mean every VTuber grew equally.
These limits matter because “VTubers grew” describes aggregate viewing, not a guaranteed outcome for an individual creator.
Twitch’s product direction reinforced identity and collaboration
Creator Clubs and the VTuber Club
Twitch announced a dedicated VTuber Club as part of its Creator Clubs program in August 2024. Twitch described the clubs as spaces for Affiliates and Partners aged 18 or older to connect through Discord communities, events, workshops and shared audiences. The announcement is evidence of institutional recognition and support, not independent proof of the 10% growth figure. Twitch later said VTuber Club applications were paused and expected to reopen in February 2025; that historical status should not be treated as the current application status in 2026. See Twitch’s Creator Clubs announcement.
Shared Chat and Shared Viewership
At TwitchCon San Diego, Twitch announced Shared Chat for Stream Together sessions with up to six creators. Its December update on Shared Viewership said qualifying collaborations could combine concurrent viewer counts for discovery purposes. These tools reduce the friction of collaborative viewing and make a network of creators more visible as a network.
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Mobile discovery turned clips into an on-ramp
Twitch said in July 2024 that more than half of users primarily used Twitch on a phone in a given month, 40% used it exclusively on a phone and almost three-quarters of new viewers started on mobile. Its redesigned app emphasized a discovery feed, clips, Stories and personalized recommendations: Twitch’s mobile app announcement.
At TwitchCon, the company reported that more than 70% of new viewers first arrived through the mobile app, video plays rose by more than 60% on iOS and more than doubled on Android after the redesign, and the feed generated 38 million new follows. Those are Twitch’s product metrics and should not be read as proof that mobile changes caused GTA V or VTuber growth.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The shared audience behavior behind two different trends
GTA roleplay and VTuber content are not the same genre. One is commonly organized around a game world; the other is organized around a creator identity that can travel across categories. Their overlap is social entertainment:
- Viewers return to recurring characters, rituals and storylines.
- Recognizable identities make a channel easier to follow across games and formats.
- Collaborations create network effects and multiple points of entry.
- Chat participation and community references reward regular attendance.
- Clips and short-form moments help discovery outside the live broadcast.
The broader lesson is not that audiences have stopped caring about games. It is that games increasingly function as stages or systems for creator-led programming, while identity and community help determine whether viewers return.
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Does GTA V’s result predict GTA VI?
It is reasonable to treat GTA V’s scale as a sign that a future Grand Theft Auto release could attract intense streaming interest. It is not evidence that GTA VI will automatically reproduce GTA V’s year-round audience.
- GTA VI may launch with a different online mode or server ecosystem.
- Roleplay depends on tools, moderation, creator adoption and community infrastructure, not only on the base game.
- A launch can produce a huge short-term spike without sustaining daily viewing.
- Some viewers may be loyal primarily to creators and roleplay communities rather than to the GTA brand.
The transferable asset is the combination of persistence, collaboration, character and community—not simply the name on the game box.
What the trends mean for streamers
For a GTA creator
- Choosing the GTA V category is not a substitute for a viable, well-moderated server.
- A durable character and understandable continuity help new viewers enter an ongoing story.
- Reliable scheduling supports recurring narratives and collaboration.
- Clips should explain the moment well enough to work outside the live context.
For a prospective VTuber
- An avatar alone is not a content strategy; performance, voice and character development matter.
- Model and rigging licenses, music rights, overlays and other assets need clear permissions.
- Tracking hardware or software, moderation and privacy boundaries are operational requirements.
- Formats should work beyond a debut reveal, because aggregate category growth does not guarantee individual discovery.
Bottom line
Twitch’s reported 2024 data placed GTA V first among games by hours watched—more than 1.4 billion hours—while VTuber viewing rose 10% year over year. The durable story is not that an old game defeated new releases or that avatars replaced webcams. Twitch rewarded formats that give viewers a reason to return, participate and follow a creator or shared world over time.
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