5 most-watched categories on Twitch in 2022

According to some reports, Twitch is currently the most popular live streaming platform. The website has 140 million active users, with over 51,000 partnered content creators.

With hundreds of thousands of streamers broadcasting daily, new categories frequently emerge on the platform. This list dives deep into the five most-watched categories and games on Twitch, which have seen massive amounts of viewership throughout 2022.

Note: All the data for the statistics and numbers are sourced from the Twitch tracking website, SullyGnome.

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Categories like Just Chatting, League of Legends, and GTA 5 dominated Twitch in 2022

5) Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was the fifth-most viewed category in 2022 (Image via Steam)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a competitive and tactical shooter developed by Valve, was the fifth-most-watched category on Twitch. The game received 725,180,744 hours of average viewing time, which was 7.1% less than the previous year.

On May 22, during the final round of the PGL (Professional Gamers League) Major Antwerp 2022, CS: GO reached its peak viewership. On the live stream, over 253k people watched FaZe Clan take on Natus Vincere (Na'Vi).

The most-watched streamer in this category was Alexandre "gAuLeS," a former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro. He streamed the game for 4,760 hours, averaging 27k viewers per stream.

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4) Valorant

Valorant was the fourth-most watched game on the streaming platform in 2022 (Image via Riot Games)

Valorant, a popular fast-paced shooter from Riot Games, is up next. This was the first category to surpass the billion-hour mark, with 1,195,639,372 viewers tuning in. This figure was up 34.7% from the previous year.

Valorant gained significant traction twice in 2022. The first instance occurred on April 24, 2022, during the Valorant Champions Tour, with a peak of 984,205 viewers recorded.

The second occurrence happened on September 18, when the Valorant Champions Finals were aired. The match between LOUD Esports and OpTiC Gaming drew an average of 320,566 viewers and peaked at 1,197,406 viewers.

In terms of streamers, former esports athlete Tarik "tarik" dominated the charts, with more than 70k hours of watch time on his channel.

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3) Grand Theft Auto 5

Grand Theft Auto 5 racked up more than a billion hours of watch time in 2022 (Image via Rockstar Games)

Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 5 is the first non-esports game on the list. Despite having 1,452,821,686 hours of Twitch watch time, the category saw a slight decrease in viewership, as it was 18.8% higher in 2021.

The open-world title maintained consistent viewership throughout the year, breaking the record on September 26, 2022.

Brazilian streaming personality Loud Coringa was the category's most-watched content creator. Coringa streamed Grand Theft Auto 5 for over 1,500 hours, and his gaming broadcast was watched by over 43,000 people.

Twitch star Felix "xQc" followed up as the second-most popular GTA 5 streamer. The French-Canadian amassed a watch time of 38,664,444 hours at the time of writing.

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2) League of Legends

League of Legends was the most popular and most-watched game on Twitch in 2022 (Image via Riot Games)

ALeague of Legends, another Riot Games title on the list, is one of the world's most popular MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena).

The year 2022 was one of the best for competitive gaming on Amazon's live streaming platform. On November 6, the game broke several Twitch records.

The first-ranked South Korean seed, T1, faced off against the fourth-ranked seed from the same region, DRX, in the League of Legends Worlds 2022 Final.

Many considered the best-of-five series to be the best World Championship finale. The epic conclusion to the esports event drew 3.1 million viewers at its peak, with an average of 772,904 viewers.

American Twitch sensation Tyler "Tyler1" was the most-watched content creator to play the game. The Missouri-native streamed the MOBA for 2,769 hours and amassed 65,858,048 hours of watch time.

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1) Just Chatting

The Just Chatting category dominated Twitch in 2022 (Image via Sportskeeda)

In 2022, the only non-gaming category on the list broke viewership records. Just Chatting is a category in which streamers primarily react to other content and political commentary, as well as host conversation-focused broadcasts.

The most-watched category had a staggering 3,160,937,912 hours watched, representing a 5.5% increase over the previous year.

Several well-known streaming personalities have topped the charts, with xQc being the most popular Just Chatting content creator on the platform. Along with him, political commentator Hasan "HasanAbi" was ranked second, and Kai Cenat was ranked third.

Adin Ross, Matthew "Mizkif," Zack "Asmongold," Ibai Llanos, and many others were also well-known streamers.