2025 was a year of contrasts in the gaming world. Indie rocked it both critically and commercially. Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 It made history at The Game Awards as the first indie debut to win Game of the Year. But on the other hand, dark times reigned as the industry dealt with massive layoffs that hit thousands of developers at companies like Microsoft, Warner Bros., and EA. Despite this behind-the-scenes turmoil, the year saw major releases, including: ARC Raiders, Monster Hunter: Wildand mario kart worldthe long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silk Song.

This combination of high-profile releases and popular indie titles led to strong livestream viewership. But as you’ll soon discover, breaking into the top tier of streaming viewership is more difficult than ever. In this article, we’ll show you the games that dominated live streaming in 2025, the new releases that garnered the most attention, and how different genres overlapped.

If you’re looking for more macro-scale live streaming data, check out our free 2025 Live Streaming Trends Report for a complete breakdown of 2025 trends.

Key points by Stream Hatchet:

• League of Legends pushed Grand Theft Auto V to the top spot this year thanks to 1.95 billion hours watched, up 4% year over year
• ARC Raiders garnered 129 million hours of viewing in its first 30 days, making it the most-watched launch title of 2025 by first-time viewers.
• The first-person shooter genre was the most popular among live streaming viewers, with 4.6 billion hours watched, led by Counter-Strike, which accounted for 28% of that.

Long-established IPs like League of Legends and GTAV dominate the top 10 games

The top of the live streaming charts for 2025 looks very familiar. league of legends Maintained the number one position with 1.95 billion hours of viewing time (4.3% increase compared to 2024), GTA V It was followed closely by hours watched at 1.9 billion hours (despite a slight drop of 4.5%). counter strike was in the top three with 1.28 billion hours of viewing, showing a healthy 29.3% year-over-year growth. The rest of the list seems like a who’s who of live streaming heavyweights. Assess the value, minecraft, dota 2, fortniteand mobile titles like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and garena free fire.

The only newcomer to rank in the top 10 robloxranked 9th with 515 million hours of viewing. This success is primarily due to the viral success of one of the platform’s user-created experiences, “Grow a Garden.” But this success has also created more sustainable viewership for other new experiences like “Steal a Brainrot.” What’s notable here is the staying power of these established titles, with most showing modest growth or remaining stable. Breaking into this exclusive club of streaming giants still seems insurmountable for new games.

ARC Raiders leads new releases with a little help from genre trends

However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be new games that shake up the meta in 2025. ARC Raiders crushed the competition among new releases in 2025, racking up 129 million hours of viewing in its first 30 days. There is a large difference in second place Escape from Tarkov 104 million hours of viewing time. Embark Studios’ co-op extraction shooter has clearly struck a chord with the streaming community, and genre plays a big role here. Shooting games and battle royale titles tend to dominate live streaming thanks to their inherent viewership and competitiveness. Monster Hunter: Wild Top 3 with 74 million hours watched, followed by sports titles EA Sports FC 26 At 62M.

A combination of AAA and indie titles The top 10 contains some interesting stories. battlefield 6, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II While representing the side that spends large amounts of money, Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 (and later dominated The Game Awards), making it into the broader Top 100 alongside horror games lipo existence of mario kart world Coming in 10th place with 34 million hours of viewing shows Nintendo’s continued ability to generate buzz, even if its Switch 2 launch titles can’t match the live viewership of established streaming-friendly genres.

Publishers look to reinvigorate audiences for older IPs with nostalgia and fresh content

In 2025, the publisher continued its two-pronged strategy. The idea is to breathe new life into existing games through expansions and DLC, while unearthing a back catalog of remakes and remasters. While expansions keep live service games fresh and communities active, remakes provide an opportunity to reintroduce classic IPs to new audiences. However, as streaming data shows, these strategies do not yield comparable results.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Classic With 36.7 million hours watched in the first 30 days, it dominated the DLC and expansions category, more than doubling the number two spot. Hearthstone: Into the Emerald Dream At 13M. The top five is particularly dominated by Blizzard titles. Destiny 2: Edge of Destiny and two hearthstone Extensions are also included in the list. Rimworld: Odyssey Rounding out the top five was 11.2 million hours watched, showing that even single-player strategy games can generate solid streaming numbers in the absence of major content updates.

The remake and remaster category tells a different story. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered It topped the list with 31.1 million hours watched, but the drop was steep. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater With just 4.6 million hours watched, Final Fantasy Tactics Ivalician Chronicles and 3.6M. The remaining titles barely managed to reach 2 million hours of viewing each. Unless the remaster is a truly iconic title with a large existing fanbase, nostalgia alone won’t be enough to drive mass streaming viewing.

FPS games lead all genres, but the market concentration of top games varies

In 2025, first-person shooters topped live streaming with 4.6 billion hours of viewing, closely followed by action-adventures and MOBAs with 3.8 billion hours each. RPGs and MMORPGs were watched the same number of hours at 1.9 billion hours, shooters (non-FPS) at 1.7 billion hours, and battle royales at 1.3 billion hours. Games are categorized by primary genre for this analysis only, so viewer numbers are not double counted. That is, a game like fortnitethere are multiple game modes for different shooter subgenres.

What’s interesting is that different genres can be completely dependent on top titles. What supports action-adventure is GTA V (1.9 billion out of 3.8 billion, or 50%), MOBAs are almost completely league of legends (2 billion of 3.8 billion, or 53%). Demonstrates high concentration even in the shooting genre, fortnite It accounts for 41% of the total. On the flip side, genres like RPGs and MMORPGs are seeing healthier competition. Path of Exile 2 It’s only 7% of all RPGs. roblox It accounts for 27% of MMORPG viewers. While some genres are effectively one game show on streaming, others have true diversity and can be more flexible to changing player interests (and more attractive to developers looking to break into new IPs).

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2025 proved that live streaming viewership favors incumbents. league of legends, GTA Vand counter strike You’re not going anywhere quickly, and getting into the top 10 requires intense dedication to community building. ARC Raiders and The Burnt Peanut. The data also reveals a clear divide in how genres perform in streaming. Some genres are effectively one-game shows (league of legends For MOBA, GTA V Other games, such as RPGs and MMORPGs, exhibit healthier competition and may be more attractive to new entrants.

For publishers looking to make some noise in 2026, understanding these patterns is just the beginning. game awards celebration Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 It shows that breakout success is still possible, but it will take more than just a great game. This requires a deep understanding of the live streaming landscape, including which platforms are growing, which streamers are driving discovery, and how viewer behavior is changing across different game types.

To learn more about the platforms, games, and streamers that powered live streaming communities in 2025, check out our full 2025 Live Streaming Trends Report for free today.