If you’re a new streamer trying to figure out which platform is better, Twitch vs YouTube Gaming then this article will help answer those questions. I like to keep my information pretty straight to the point and not waste your time.
If you are in the very beginning of your live streaming career, you should be streaming everywhere you can restream.io. By using this software you don’t need to decide which is better, Twitch vs YouTube because you’ll be on both of them. We cover this and so much guide on our guide to gaining more viewers on twitch, and every other platform for streaming.
This software will let you stream on both platforms at once, but you can only do this without breaking their TOS as long as you are not an affiliate or partner on either of them. And remember, you can’t play copyright music on Twitch or YouTubeGaming.
To understand Twitch vs YouTube here is a very brief history lesson of each platform..
Table of Contents
Twitch.tv
Twitch started as Justin.tv started in 2007 as a wide variety of user-generated live video content. Then in 2014 it was rebranded into what we now know – Twitch.tv, then justin.tv was shut down completely. Since then the owners sold Twitch.tv to Amazon on August 25th, 2014 for $970 million dollars.
Twitch is known for its live streaming platform for mostly gaming, though it has branched out from gaming. Majority of the viewers are on twitch for the online game streaming.
Also people raid other streamers on Twitch, but they don’t on YouTube Gaming. You can learn more about Twitch Raiding on our post.
Key Twitch Statistics
3.8 million unique broadcasters over February 2020
Average monthly Twitch broadcasters 3.64 million over 2019
56,000 concurrent Twitch broadcasters on average, as of March 2020
1.44 million concurrent viewers on average, as of March 2020
41,100 Twitch Partners, as of March 2020
Highest peak concurrent Twitch views in 2020 (as of March) 533,000, for The Gregf
Tfue most followed active Twitch account, with 7.8 million
Moreover, Ninja even had had 14.7 million followers before defecting to Microsoft Mixer
League of Legends all-time most-viewed game on Twitch, with 29 billion views (as of April 2020)
Twitch claimed 65% share of hours viewed (3.1 billion), and 72% hours (121.4 million) streamed against game streaming rivals in Q1 2020
As of 2017, 124 million clips were stored on Twitch, with 1.7 billion views collectively
Twitch users watch 95 minutes per day on average
Twitch ranked 33 in the world in Alexa’s web ranking in April 2020
65% of the Twitch userbase is male
Around 23% of Twitch desktop traffic comes from the US
Record for single channel concurrent Twitch views 1.1 million for a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament hosted by ELEAGUE in January 2018
In addition, the overall record for concurrent Twitch views 1.7 million for League of Legends Worlds hosted by Riot Games in November 2019
Ninja holds the non-tournament record for single channel concurrent viewers on Twitch, at 635,000 (playing Fortnite alongside Drake, Travis Scott, and Juju Smith-Schuster)
Twitch 2019 revenue estimated at $1.54 billion, $300 million of which was generated through advertising
YouTube Gaming
YouTube was created in 2005 by three former PayPal employees. Additionally, most of YouTube’s viewers are there for the online videos, not so much for live gaming. But it wasn’t until August 25th 2015 when they launched YouTube Gaming.
They created this video gaming-oriented vertical and app for videos and live streaming, intended to compete with the Amazon.com-owned Twitch.
| Quarter | YouTube Gaming Hours Watched (Millions) | Twitch Hours Watched (Millions) |
| Q2 2020 | 1503 | 5066 |
| Q1 2020 | 1076 | 3114 |
| Q4 2019 | 953 | 2300 |
| Q3 2019 | 724 | 2551 |
| Q2 2019 | 749 | 2440 |
| Q1 2019 | 723 | 2478 |
| Q4 2018 | 809 | 2333 |
| Q3 2018 | 596 | 2844 |
| Q2 2018 | 428 | 2104 |
| Q1 2018 | 394 | 2000 |
Now that you have a little background of each of the platforms, we can start to discuss the features of each of these platforms.
Twitch’s Steaming usability and UI
Twitch was literally made for broadcasting video games online, so that gives them a big advantage here. It’s very simple and easy to use. Most of your options and settings are on the left side of the browser window, while the broadcast is directly in the middle of the screen.
Then to see more information about the twitch streamer, their gear, donation button, and anything else you’d like the viewers to see is listed below the stream.
On mobile, you can change the quality of the stream. This is a great setting if you have bad service so you can still watch without hiccups.
Although you can’t rewind the stream, you can still pause it at your convenience.
Additionally on mobile, if you device is standing you can watch the stream on the top, and the chat is below it.
Downfalls of Twitch
While it was made for online game streaming, it’s missing a few things that would be nice. You can’t remind or rewatch something that just happened unless it was clipped.
YouTube Gaming Streaming usability and UI
YouTube Gaming does have a very simple user interface as well, which makes it easy to use. The user interface is a bit bigger than Twitch’s as they are trying to promote the streamers name and YouTube channel.
On this platform you can also change the video quality as well, which helps on mobile viewing.
Unlike Twitch, you can rewind the stream which is a great feature. This is a big advantage for YouTube Gaming vs Twitch. Twitch and YouTube both allow you to pause the steam though.
Downfalls of YouTube Gaming
I’d personally have to say a huge problem with this platform is that you can’t see many streamers. When you first go to https://www.youtube.com/gaming you can see a list of the top games that are being streamed, but even then it only shows a few games.
Then when you find a game you want to watch, it only shows about 6 streamers, and more videos. It seems like YouTube does not want to promote their streamers as much as the videos.
Which is easier to use and user interface?
This one is difficult to figure out when talking about Twitch vs YouTube, but after you use both of them you’ll be able to do everything you need with ease. Both Twitch and YouTube have totally different interfaces, but if you have experience with YouTube, then YouTube gaming will be very fluent.
Now let’s talk about the revenue on Twitch vs YouTube
There are some big differences here that can be a make or break for your choice. However both of them have their pros and cons of each platform. The revenue can be a big difference oh the platform when deciding Twitch and Youtube.
Twitch Revenue
Twitch has two different partnership option. They have an affiliate program and a full partnership program. Both of these programs earn money from advertisements, subscriptions, donations, and bits. The tier one subscription on Twitch costs $4.99/monthly and half of that goes to the streamer, and the other half to twitch.
On top of that, Twitch has a free subscription if you have an Amazon Prime membership. This is a great way for subscribers to subscribe without costing a time, because most people have are subscribers to Amazon Prime.
YouTube Gaming Revenue
Sense YTG (YouTube Gaming) is a part of YouTube it uses the same partnership program and advertising model. This a lot easier to obtain than Twitch because it has less live gaming streamers.
YouTube gaming does have a super chat option, which is their built in donation system, but it does take 30%.
But Twitch does get more regular donations at higher amounts, without taking a percentage. Most of YouTube gains their monetization from donations, but sadly, they take a big percentage.
So which has a better income?
I’m going to give this one to Twitch. With it having more viewers, and higher average income and donations Twitch is the clear winner here. While Twitch does not take part of the donations, YouTube Gaming’s donations are integrated right into the platform.
Twitch and YouTube Gaming Moderation and Chat
Having proper moderation of your channel and chat is important not only for the viewer, but for the streamer too. You don’t want someone to come into you stream ruining someone else’s experience because they are being toxic.
YouTube and Twitch have different ways of handling this important piece of streaming online video gaming live. Furthermore, Twitch extensions are a great way to further customize it.
Twitch’s options for chat moderation and chat
Which Twitch chat is notorious for being toxic, it can be moderated pretty well, especially with Twitch mod commands. With having the options to turn on subscriber only chat is a huge benefit to limit who can chat in your stream.
On top of that, Twitch also has bots, like NightBot, that can automatically control and moderate your chat for you.
YouTube Gaming’s options for chat and moderation
While Twitch has lots of settings and options to moderate, YouTube does not have nearly as many options. The YouTube chat is very uncontrollable without tools to assist.
YouTube does seem to get less toxic people, but you’ll get less people.
The answer is clear for moderation and chat
Twitch takes the cake on this one. With bots doing most of the moderation and the options Twitch gives you, this is a no-brainer. The bots from Twitch can pretty much handle most of this for you once you set them up properly.
Twitch vs YouTube Gaming Audience
Audience is a very important part of streaming. The bigger audience you have the more viewers and money you are making. While both offer notifications to the viewer when the streamer goes live, one does it better than the other.
The audience on Twitch
In general, Twitch does a bigger audience than YTG. A lot more people view Twitch than YTG on a daily basis. Twitch can draw in some huge numbers during large events.
Audience on YouTube Gaming
In 2020, YTG hit some great milestones increasing the viewers, but it is still not a match for Twitch. While it may not get as many viewers, they’re much better at reaching pre-existing followings vs Twitch.
All of their followers are notified whenever the streamer goes live, which is helpful to continue to gain consistent viewers.
In conclusion, so which platform is better to start streaming on in 2021 between Twitch vs YouTube?
When you’re first starting out, I strongly suggest streaming on youtube and twitch, along with every other platform to gain viewers. Then start funneling the viewers to Twitch. For long term Twitch beats out YouTube in almost all of the items listed above.
Using restream you’ll get the most out of your viewers for your content. This is a better way to get the most of the million hours you’ll spend trying to get people to view your content.
Streaming can be a great career choice that most people struggle to achieve, but with hard work and dedication you could become the best streaming online! And even though most streamers do it for the money, there is so much more to it than becoming a partner on these platforms.
A lot of people rely on streamers to help them get through the hard times. Even though you’ll never get to know your viewers, they feel like this know you like you know your best friends.
So in the end, streaming online video games on Twitch should be your end goal.
