Twitch’s reported 2024 figures put Grand Theft Auto V first among games by hours watched, with more than 1.4 billion hours, while VTuber streams gained 10% year over year. The figures point to two different successes—a persistent game world and a creator format—but they share a deeper advantage: viewers return for characters, collaboration and community, not just isolated gameplay.
What Twitch’s 2024 figures actually measured
The trend story was published on April 24, 2025, in coverage of Twitch’s reported 2024 data. The ranking available in that coverage is a ranking by hours watched, not a universal score for popularity, peak concurrent viewers, average viewers, or number of active channels. VentureBeat reported that Twitch identified Grand Theft Auto V as its most-watched game. The underlying end-of-year methodology and a complete official ranking table were not publicly located, so the figures should be treated as Twitch-reported numbers rather than an independently audited dataset.
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Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Edition - PC [Online Game Code] | $29.98 | Buy on Amazon |
| Game | Reported 2024 hours watched | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Theft Auto V | More than 1.4 billion hours | Reported by Twitch through VentureBeat |
| League of Legends | Approximately 1.19 billion hours | Reported figure; methodology not stated |
| Valorant | Approximately 804 million hours | Reported figure; methodology not stated |
| Fortnite | Approximately 539 million hours | Reported figure; methodology not stated |
Twitch also reported more than 25.8 million hours streamed in the GTA V category. Hours watched can grow through longer broadcasts, more active channels, sustained communities, or major events; it does not equal the number of unique viewers. The figures are summarized in VentureBeat’s report, with competitor totals also summarized by SMARTmania.
Why GTA V keeps working as a streaming environment
Roleplay turns a game into a serial drama
GTA V’s strongest streaming use is not simply driving or completing missions. Custom roleplay servers provide rules, jobs, law enforcement, businesses and social institutions in which creators improvise. A stream can therefore function like a live episode, with consequences that carry into later broadcasts.
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Characters give viewers a reason to return
Recurring characters, alliances, rivalries and unfinished storylines create continuity. A viewer may follow a fictional police officer, criminal, lawyer or shop owner across several channels and several days. That persistence reduces the dependence on a new-release spike.
One event can support many channels
Heists, arrests, courtroom scenes and arguments can be watched from multiple participants’ perspectives. Collaboration expands discovery: an audience following one character may move to another creator involved in the same event.
It is legible even to non-players
Basic social drama is easy to understand without mastering the game’s controls. A chase or dispute can also be clipped into a short video for discovery outside the live broadcast. These qualities make GTA V a flexible stage for creator-led entertainment.
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- Includes the complete grand Theft Auto V story experience
The available figures do not separate roleplay from ordinary gameplay, speedrunning, events or other GTA V formats. Roleplay is therefore a plausible explanation for the category’s durability, not a measured causal finding.
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A VTuber is a creator who presents through a virtual avatar. The format can cover games, Just Chatting, music, art, events and collaborations, so it cannot be compared to GTA V as though both were the same type of category.
What the reported percentages mean
VentureBeat reported that VTuber streams generated 10% more hours watched year over year. It also reported a 200% increase for British VTubers, while naming the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom as important markets. The report does not provide the absolute British audience, its starting base, or a breakdown showing whether growth came from more channels, larger audiences per creator, longer broadcasts, major events or changes in classification.
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- The biggest, most dynamic and most diverse open world ever created and now packed with layers of new detail.
- Grand Theft Auto V blends storytelling and gameplay in new ways as players repeatedly jump in and out of the lives of the game's three lead characters, playing all sides of the game's interwoven story.
- Grand Theft Auto V also comes with Grand Theft Auto Online, the dynamic and ever-evolving Grand Theft Auto universe for multiple players.
A 200% rise from a small base can represent fewer total hours than a 10% rise in a much larger market. Nor does aggregate growth mean that every VTuber grew, or that the format has become equally established in every country.
Twitch’s product choices favored identity and collaboration
Creator Clubs and the VTuber Club
In August 2024, Twitch announced Creator Clubs, including a dedicated VTuber Club. Twitch described clubs as spaces for Affiliates and Partners aged 18 or older to meet through Discord communities, events and workshops, and to find shared audiences. In a December update, Twitch said applications for the VTuber Club had been paused and were expected to reopen in February 2025; that historical status should not be read as the current application status in 2026. See Twitch’s Creator Clubs announcement.
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The club demonstrates institutional recognition of VTubers. It does not, by itself, prove the reported 10% viewing increase or show that the program caused it.
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Shared Chat and Shared Viewership
Twitch’s September 2024 TwitchCon announcements said Shared Chat could combine the chats of up to six creators during a Stream Together session. In December, Shared Viewership allowed qualifying collaborative channels to combine concurrent viewer counts for discovery and placement purposes. These tools fit formats in which several creators jointly tell a story. Details are in Twitch’s TwitchCon San Diego announcement and its Shared Viewership update.
Mobile discovery, clips and Stories
Twitch said in July 2024 that more than half of its users primarily used Twitch on a phone in a given month, 40% used it exclusively on a phone, and almost three-quarters of new viewers started on mobile. The redesigned app emphasized a discovery feed, clips, Stories and personalized recommendations. At TwitchCon, Twitch reported that more than 70% of new viewers first arrived through the mobile app, iOS video plays had risen by more than 60%, Android plays had more than doubled, and the feed had produced 38 million new follows. Those are Twitch’s product metrics, not proof that mobile changes caused GTA V or VTuber growth. See the mobile app announcement.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.The shared audience behavior
GTA roleplay and VTubers are not the same genre, but they reward similar viewing habits:
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- Continuity: viewers follow an ongoing world, character or routine.
- Recognizable identity: the creator or avatar remains meaningful across different games and segments.
- Participation: chat, community references and collaborative events make the audience part of the experience.
- Redistribution: clips and cross-channel appearances bring new viewers into an established community.
This suggests that games increasingly serve as systems or stages for social entertainment. It does not mean viewers have stopped caring about games; it means the surrounding creator relationship can be as important as the software itself.
What GTA V’s result does—and does not—say about GTA VI
GTA V’s audience is a reasonable signal of interest in a future Grand Theft Auto release, but it is not a forecast. A new title could produce a huge launch spike without sustaining year-round viewing. Its online mode, server tools, moderation systems and creator adoption may differ substantially from GTA V’s ecosystem.
Roleplay also depends on infrastructure and people: server rules, moderation, character continuity and networks of creators. Viewers may be loyal primarily to those communities or personalities rather than to the GTA brand. The transferable lesson is persistence and social design, not an automatic guarantee that any GTA sequel will reproduce the same viewing pattern.
Practical implications for creators
Choosing GTA roleplay
- Secure access to a well-moderated server with rules you can explain.
- Design a character and schedule that support recurring stories.
- Build collaborations that make events understandable from more than one viewpoint.
- Give new viewers enough context to enter an ongoing narrative.
- Use clips as discovery, but measure whether they bring viewers back.
Building a VTuber channel
- Plan model quality, rigging and tracking before a debut.
- Develop a voice, performance style and character that work beyond one event.
- Set privacy boundaries and moderation rules early.
- Confirm licensing for models, music, overlays and other assets.
- Choose content that can span games, conversation or collaborative programming without losing the channel’s identity.
Neither category guarantees earnings. Revenue depends on subscriptions, advertising, Bits, sponsorships, geography, contracts and Twitch’s platform economics—not on hours watched alone.
The durable lesson from Twitch’s 2024 trends
GTA V’s lead and VTuber viewing growth describe different units of measurement, but together they show the value of return visits. One offers a persistent fictional city; the other offers a persistent digital persona. Twitch’s collaboration and discovery tools reinforce that direction, while the available data still cannot prove that any one product change caused the reported totals.
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