How Top Fighting Game Competitions Generated Over 1M Hours Watched on Twitch

The following fighting game competitions were included in the competitive set for this analysis:

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Key Takeaways

How CapCom Pro Tour, Red Bull Kumite and Evo Championship Series generated 1M hours watched on Twitch:

About the Stream Audience

• Male vs Female: Across the competitive set, 72% of audience members are men.
• Audience Age: 25-34 year olds make up 20% of the audience followed by 18-24 year olds (15%).
• Location: The US (36%), Canada (9%) and the UK (8%) make up the top audience locations.

Competition Details

• Event Viewers: All events saw more views on subsequent competition days except for Red Bull.
• Least Retention: Capcom generated 78% of the total views gained, but only 44% of the total hours watched—meaning that many people watched their streams but only for a short period of time.
• Event Timing: Overall viewership trended upward at 16:00, 17:00 and 21:00 hours (UTC+8).
• Leading Games: Guilty Gear was streamed -63% less than Street Fighter but saw +7% more average viewers.

Peak Viewership Analysis

• Red Bull: Guilty Gear drove the most viewers during the event, peaking at 30K. Viewership increases during gameplay and drops during breaks. Long breaks between Guilty Gear and Tekken 7 caused a -47% decrease in viewership and a lower viewership for the event's second half. During Red Bull’s second day, viewers peaked during the last ten minutes of the tournament to see ProblemX defeat NL in the finals.
• Evo: Audience attention was held over the course of the competition days through Loser Semi-Finals and following the success of underdogs who made it to the Winner’s Finals. Viewership gained traction by hosting guessing games for the audience and showing throwback competition clips.
• CapCom: CapCom uses a stream intro to help increase viewership at the start of the stream. Australia, Japan, CPT NA/Canada, and C America East games generated the highest levels of views. CapCom maintains viewers during the breaks with game commentary from their “Analyst Panel”. Additionally, CapCom increases game viewership by using a three-minute countdown before each event.

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This report consists of three main elements for the competitive set:

1. Demographics & Geographics

2. Event Stats & Information

3. Peak Viewership Analysis

1. Demographics & Geographics

Amongst the competitive set, 72% of viewers on Twitch are men and 25-34 year olds are the top viewers at 20%. 

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The United States accounted for 36% of audience streaming locations in the competitive set, followed by Canada (9%), the United Kingdom (8%) and Germany (4%).

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Red Bull has the highest audience of male viewers at 75%. The age group with the largest amount of female audience members are 18-24 year olds at 10%. 

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The United States accounted for 26% of Red Bull’s Twitch audience in February 2022 followed by Canada (9%), Germany (8%), the United Kingdom (7%) and Sweden (6%).

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Evo has the highest share of female audience members in the competitive set at 30%. Men are the majority audience (70%) but women surpass men in the 13-17 group (+16%).

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The United States accounted for 41% of Evo’s Twitch audience followed by Canada (10%), the United Kingdom (8%), Japan (6%) and Germany (4%).

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CapCom sees men in the majority of their audience (71%), with the largest share of viewers in the 25-34 age group (20%). 

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The United States accounted for 43% of CapCom’s Twitch audience followed by the United Kingdom (9%), Canada (9%), Japan (5%) and Brazil (4%).

2. Event Stats & Information

The following competition dates and Twitch streams were included in this analysis:

Evo Championship Series

Tournament Day 1: August 14, 2021
Tournament Day 2: August 15, 2021

Red Bull Kumite

Tournament Day 1: November 13, 2021
Tournament Day 2: November 14, 2021*

CapCom Pro Tour

Tournament Day 1: February 18, 2022
Tournament Day 2: February 19, 2022
Tournament Day 3: February 20, 2022

*Full stream unavailable

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Evo saw the longest average stream length across events at 16:24 hours while Red Bull saw the highest average watch time at 62.5 minutes.

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CapCom had the greatest average concurrent viewers (32K) with the most viewed day being Feb. 20th, which averaged 39K concurrent viewers. Red Bull was the only event that drew the most viewers on the event’s first day (15K).

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The three events generated 1M hours watched and 7M views gained. CapCom generated 78% of the total views gained, but only 44% of the total hours watched—meaning that many people watched their streams but only for a short period of time.

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On average across the competitive set, viewership trended upwards later into the day. Streaming times with the most concurrent viewers include 16:00, 17:00 and 21:00 hours. 

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Street Fighter V has seen the most hours streamed (33) across the event dates for the competitive set while Guilty Gear: Strive had the most average viewers per hour at 3.9K. Guilty Gear was streamed for competitions -63% less than Street Fighter V but saw +7% more average viewers. 

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3. Peak Viewership Analysis

Five different game titles were played on Day 1 of Evo’s tournament on August 14, 2021. Street Fighter V (13K), Skullgirls (12K) and Mortal Kombat 11 (11.5K) maintained the highest average viewers through play time.

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The highest overall peak in Evo’s first day of competition streams was generated by two announcers talking about the progress of a particular player (Mr. Peck) overtime from the Losers Finals to the Grand Final Reset in Skullgirls. 

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On Day 1 of Evo’s competition, Street Fighter V maintained the highest average concurrent viewers at 13K throughout the stream. Viewer build up peaked at the height of competitions and fell during break times. Audience attention was held at the end of the game by going through “Blast from the Past” performances.

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Day 2 of Evo’s tournament on August 15, 2021 saw four games played. Guilty Gear (41K), Tekken 7 (15K) and Skullgirls: 2nd Encore (13K) saw the highest average viewership during gameplay. Guilty Gear generated more than 2X viewers compared to Tekken 7.

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Skullgirls: 2nd Encore maintained the least amount of volatility in valleys by playing games with audience members during breaks where viewers could guess who makes the winning blow. The highest peak was a transition into the next game at the end of the stream for Skullgirls which featured a “Women of the FGC” interview and conversation.

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On Day 2 of Evo’s competition, Guilty Gear: Strive drove the highest average viewers at 41K. The peak in viewership came from the start of the Winners Semi-Finals and gained traction to the highest point of viewership during the Losers Semi-Finals. Viewers fell off by -11% immediately after the Losers semi-final fight.

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Guilty Gear: Strive and Tekken 7, were played on Day 1 of Red Bull. Guilty Gear generated the highest average viewership during gameplay, peaking at 30K viewers.  

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The highest overall peak in Red Bull’s Day 1 stream was at 15:00 during Guilty Gear gameplay (Pool A - Match 5 - Apologyman vs BNBBN) which peaked at 30K viewers. 

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Red Bull’s Day 1 stream of Guilty Gear experienced positive spikes in viewership when the first match and the finals began. However, the stream’s viewership dropped when the semi-finals gameplay ended. Viewership also fell significantly when the stream took a 30-minute break before Tekken 7 started.

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The average viewership for Tekken 7 was generally consistent, except for a -15% decrease in viewership during the final ten minutes.

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On the second day of Red Bull’s competition, the only game played was Street Fighter V. The Grand Final (11K) and Top 8 (11K) sections had the highest average viewers. 

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During Red Bull’s second day, viewers peaked during the last ten minutes of the tournament to see ProblemX defeat NL in the finals. The greatest drop (-41%) in viewership occurred during the Group Stage — Pool C Match 1 (Brain_F vs GO1).

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During Red Bull's second day, they experienced positive spikes in viewership during the Group Series when the first match began and during Pool B's second and third match. Conversely, viewership dropped by -41% during Pool C's first match. 

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During the second day’s Top 8 and Grand Final sections, viewership peaked in the quarter-final FT 3: ProblemX vs Punk with 12K viewers, and then again during the grand finals while ProblemX defeated NL.

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The CapCom Pro Tour Season Final in February 2022 took place over three days and featured Street Fighter V matches by country. During Day 1, the event had an average of 24K concurrent viewers and peaked at 38K concurrent viewers during the Australian game. 

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On Day 1 of CapCom’s competition, the Australia match generated the highest levels of views. Viewership dropped off when the coverage of Australia matches ended, however CapCom maintains viewers during the breaks with game commentary from their “Analyst Panel”.  

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In the latter half of the stream on Day 1, the viewership numbers fell; however, when the E Eur/Russia* (+1%) and S America West* (+3%) matches were shown, viewership slightly increased. Asia SE round did not experience any change in viewership.

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During CapCom Day 2, the event had an average of 31K concurrent viewers and peaked at 46K concurrent viewers after the C America East* match while gameplay breaked and the commentators analyzed the game.

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Average viewership steadily increased during Day 2 of CapCom until C America East matches concluded. A +37% increase in viewership occurred during the competition introduction when the stream host got viewers excited about the tournament by playing up the high-stakes emotions of the game.

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Like Day 1, the latter half of CapCom’s stream on Day 2 experienced a steady decline in average viewers. During the Brazil match at 18:10, viewership dropped by -20%. CapCom increases event viewership by using a 3-minute countdown before the next event. 

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Day 3 of CapCom had the greatest average concurrent viewers out all of the days in the competitive set at 39K. Viewership peaks at 57K after the Japanese matches ended, and the event commentators discussed the final game. 

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On Day 3 of CapCom, viewership increased by +81% at 16:10 during the Nordic / Baltic match. Viewers levelled out over the N America MidWest match at 41K and peaked following the France/Spain/Portugal match at 51K while the commentators analyzed the game.

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Day 3 of CapCom varied from the previous two days as the second half of the stream had a greater average concurrent viewer than the first half. CapCom experienced a substantial decrease in viewers after the N America West match, which decreased by -21%. Viewers peaked near the end of the stream after concluding the Japanese game.