Photo Credit: StreamLabs
Live streaming software company StreamLabs has posted new and exciting numbers about the value of the industry. Today, the segment is worth $10.1 billion, the company estimates, and this sum is likely to grow by additional $3 billion in 2019 alone.
The Esports Live Streaming Industry Grows
Live streaming software developer StreamLabs has won a reputation for itself in the leisure industry. By connecting viewers and streamers and providing marketable advice, the platform has managed to process over $257 million worth of tips, according to Venture Beat.
However, the scope of StreamLabs is much larger. The company tries to stay ahead of the curve by making reliable forecasts about the future of the live streaming industry.
In their latest quarterly report, StreamLabs revealed that the segment they observe and seek to monetize on is worth $10.1 billion today and it’s likely to increase its value by additional $3 billion in 2019, GameIndustryBiz’s staff writer Haydn Taylor wrote.
The company is also in a unique position to provide insights as it is the preferred choice among streamers, with reported 40% of Twitch’s content creators turning to StreamLabs’ Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). The growth has been exponential, with the company adding 20% more users in a single quarter.
Twitch is not far behind, with the company also registering an above-20% growth since last quarter, although the Amazon-owned giant was shut down in China in September, which has considerably shrunk its potential user base.
With China remaining the world’s largest market for esports, overseas companies have been struggling to establish a foothold under the protective oversight of the country’s government.
Twitch was snuffed out following a stream that was beamed back to China during the Asian Games, which featured competitive video games as a demonstration sport, including the highly popular League of Legends (LoL).
CCTV5, the state television’s sports channel, failed to broadcast the League of Legends competition in which China won their first gold medal, prompting streamers from New York to broadcast the event on a makeshift stream which led to a 23-fold surge in the number of downloads, Sensor Tower said for The Verge.
The Other Platforms and PUBG’s Declining Viewership
Back to StreamLabs’ quarterly report, the company also commented on another popular streaming tool, Mixer, with the numbers here also growing steadily all the way up to 31.7% or 70,000 streamers presently.
Facebook Live also managed to see a significant uptick in the numbers of streamers flocking, registering north of 50% growth in the number of streamers, hitting an all-time high of 70,000., the same number as Mixer.
Even though League of Legends continues to be one of the most-watched titles, it had to concede an advantage to the battle royale title Fortnite, which outpaced it five-fold.
“Coupled with the fact that the Battle Royale genre has exploded in recent months and gamers have many more alternatives now, it’s no surprise that PUBG is slipping in popularity.” – StreamLabs as cited by GameIndustryBiz staff writer Haydn Taylor
StreamLabs paid attention to another title, PUBG, which was one of the largest hits in 2017, with viewership numbers skyrocketing and the number of concurrent players breaking all records. According to SuperData, at the end of 2017, PUBG had 20 times more viewers than players.
However, PUBG’s popularity in viewership and player count has been declining, with intelligence companies reporting player base loss and reduced interest in streaming every quarter since the beginning of 2018.
Lastly, StreamLabs’ own user base has expanded to over 2 million, which is a first in the short history of the company.
Disclaimer: The news reported in this article is based on the work of GameIndustryBiz’s staff writer Haydn Taylor.
