Most popular platforms used to watch live streams in the U.S. 2022, by age group

According to a survey conducted in October 2022, 37 percent of U.S. live stream viewers aged 18 to 34 used YouTube Live for watching live stream video content. Facebook was the second-most popular platform for live stream video.

Live streaming growing potential

The popularity of live streaming content has been linked to the online gaming and eSports world, with global users amassing almost 28 billion hours watched across Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Facebook Gaming combined in 2020. Outside the gaming world, live news and sports have dominated the rankings of the most popular type of content for streaming services worldwide.

However, several other sectors in the entertainment and e-commerce industries have benefitted from adopting live-streamed formats during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. From events to concerts, to so-called shoppertainment, users worldwide appear to be getting more comfortable with the live streaming video format. As of the third quarter of 2021, live videos presented an audience almost as large as how-to videos and tutorials, reaching more than 30 percent of users worldwide.

U.S. creators’ take on video

While live streams might not yet be the easiest video format for creators to embrace, video is becoming an increasingly popular format for online content creators. In the United States, three in 10 internet users say they have created video content to upload on the web or on social media platforms. Additionally, among those who made money from their video content online, an average of 44 percent of creators earned between 100 and 999 U.S. dollars.