The MENA region is one of the fastest growing gaming markets in the world. With the youth population skewed heavily under the age of 35 and governments like Saudi Arabia pouring billions into gaming infrastructure under Vision 2030, The conditions for the live streaming boom have been building for years. And right now, that boom is underway.
With the rise of gaming, gaming-related industries such as live streaming are also flourishing, extending the reach of popular games and events to audiences across the region. This article analyzes the state of live streaming in MENA across Twitch, YouTube Gaming, and Kick in Q1 2026, examining the platform’s growth, top creators, most-watched games, and most-attended events.
The definition of MENA is very flexible, so here’s how to precisely define the area for this analysis.
- language: Arabic, Persian (Farsi), Turkish, Hebrew, Berber (Tamazite), Kurdish
- country: Bahrain, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkiye, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia
Key points by Stream Hatchet:
- Kick became the platform of choice for Arabic and Turkish speaking viewers, reaching 81.4% of total viewers in Q1 2026.
- But the large audience from Turkiye is especially focused on YouTube, spending 12 times more time than the next most engaged country, Israel.
- GTA V role-playing servers and shooters are the most popular content among MENA viewers
Kick dominates MENA with 81% of all live streaming viewers
Live streaming viewership in MENA has increased dramatically over the past four years, with total quarterly viewing hours increasing by more than five times, from approximately 95 million hours in Q1 2022 to 490 million hours in Q1 2026. For most of that period, Twitch has been the default home for live streaming in the region, reaching around 120 million quarterly hours watched in early 2023. Then along came Kick. Starting from near zero in Q3 2023, Kick grew explosively throughout 2024 and into 2025, overtaking Twitch as early as Q2 2024. By Q1 2026, Kick will account for 81.4% of total MENA. Live streaming viewership.
reason? The Turkish government restricted access to Twitch in February 2024 over concerns about gambling content, and Turkiye’s large and active streaming community needed a place to go. Kicks, which had reached a compromise with Turkish authorities by restricting the gambling section, became a natural destination. This timing coincides almost exactly with Twitch’s steepest decline. In Q1 2024, quarterly viewing hours were approximately 107 million hours, which decreased to just 26 million hours in Q1 2026 (a decrease of approximately 75%). YouTube Gaming, on the other hand, has played a quiet but consistent role, increasing from around 24 million hours in the quarter of 2022 to 65 million hours in the first quarter of 2026.
YouTube relies on Turkish viewers, but Arabic speakers kick and twitch
Before we get into the regional breakdown, it’s worth explaining how we cut the data. YouTube Gaming measures viewership by country. For Twitch and Kick, we measure by language instead. Both lenses provide different and useful information about who is watching what and where.
In YouTube games, Turkiye accounted for 72.7% of total viewing time in MENA, and this share reflects YouTube’s existing popularity in the country and the fact that many viewers in Turkey have turned to YouTube as an alternative to Twitch since its ban in 2024. The remaining YouTube viewership is thinly spread across the regions, with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE each accounting for approximately 5-6%.
Combining twitch and kick will flip the image. Of the 425.6 million hours of total viewing time on these platforms, Arabic speakers accounted for 65.8% and Turkish viewers accounted for 34.7%. That Turkish speakers account for more than a third of viewers on Twitch and Kick across the MENA region underscores how central Turkiye is to the region’s live streaming story.
Absi and Maherco lead the world of kick-based creators
The top 10 MENA creators by hours watched in Q1 2026 are almost exclusively on Kick, reinforcing the platform’s dominance we saw previously. Leading the pack by a wide margin is Absi with 34.3 million hours watched, followed by Maherco with 25.4 million hours. Together, they account for more viewing time than the remaining eight creators combined, and both appear on Kick. However, the content is completely different. Abshi built his audience as follows. PUBG Mobile and EA Sports FCMahelco, on the other hand, makes money from gambling content (Slots & Casino). rocket leaguewhich shows that Kick’s appeal in this region cuts across many different areas of the game (more on this in a moment).
After Abushi and Mahelko, it plummeted to 3.rd Place Drb7h at 8.8M and range positions 3-10 to 2.6M. The breadth of the top 10 is notable. The mix of Arabic and Turkish creator names reflects the language divide we saw earlier, with Turkish streamers like Eray and Rammus53 alongside Arabic-speaking creators like Absi, Drb7h, and SXB. YZNSA, Professional counter strike The player-turned-streamer perfectly represents a different side of the region’s creator world, proving that MENA’s top echelons aren’t built on one type of content or one community.
GTA V and Shooters dominate MENA’s hottest games
The top games and categories vary significantly by MENA audience compared to the general streaming environment. Popular games are still featured here, but the fluctuations in rank are mainly due to the popularity of Absi and Maherco content.
Just Chatting topped all categories with 28.9 million hours watched in Q1 2026. This is common for live streaming viewers. However, in the actual game, PUBG Mobile It topped the charts with 10.3 million hours; GTA V Right behind me at 9.0M. GTA V‘s actual footprint is actually quite large, with Respect RP, a dedicated Arabic roleplay server that has been running since 2020, adding another 8.3 million hours to that total. When combined, GTA V RP servers have seen 17.3 million hours of viewing time, making it the most consumed game in the region in total. and GTA VI Therefore, its launch in MENA is highly anticipated.
In the broader genre picture, MOBAs are likely dominated by shooters and sports games. counter strike 2 7.8M, EA Sports FC 26 7.5M, and rocket league 6.2M and everyone is sitting on top league of legends At 6.0M. The PUBG franchise deserves special attention. PUBG Mobile and PUBG: Battlegrounds Nearly 15 million hours are watched across mobile and PC. ARC Raiders also appeared with 5.8 million hours, a strong result for a new title and an indication that MENA audiences are more willing to embrace new releases alongside established favorites.
Fun fact: Although MENA-developed games still do not account for a large share of global live streaming viewership, glowtopia Ubisoft Abu Dhabi’s games are the most watched games published outside the region around the world, reaching 104,000 hours of viewing time in Q1 2026.
Kings World Cup Nations leads MENA event, CS2 leads Esports pack
The most-watched livestream event among MENA viewers in Q1 2026 was Kings World Cup Nations 2026, the streamer-led sevens football competition co-founded by Gerard Pique and Ibai Llanos, which reached a peak of 264,000 concurrent viewers (almost three times more than the next event on the list). Soccer culture is deeply rooted across MENA, and with both Morocco and Saudi Arabia representing their national teams in the tournament, spectators were able to attend the tournament in person. Combining competitive sports and creator culture, the Kings League format has proven to be a natural fit in a region already deeply invested in both.
Esports fills out the remaining top events: counter strike 2 It is a standout esports title for MENA viewers, matching strong titles with three appearances at PGL Cluj-Napoca (88K), IEM Krakow (85K) and BLAST Open Rotterdam (74K). CS2 A presence seen among top creators. Assess the value Also, VCT 2026 EMEA Kickoff does double duty here for 80K and VALORANT Masters 1 for 77K. dota 2 DreamLeague 28 finished in 2nd place, achieving a surprisingly strong result.n.d. At 94K. Outside of Kings World Cup Nations, all eight events sit within a narrow range of 74,000 to 94,000, demonstrating the truly widespread interest in esports in MENA, rather than one title dominating all others.
Although it won’t be in time for the first quarter of 2026, it would be remiss of us not to mention one of the biggest events on the MENA live streaming calendar: the Esports World Cup. Held annually in Riyadh, it has grown to become one of the largest esports festivals in the world. Complete coverage of the tournament’s streaming performance. Feature article on Esports World Cup.
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MENA’s live streaming market has unique characteristics. Kick’s 81% share of regional viewership was unlike anything seen in other parts of the world and was primarily formed by Türkiye’s migration from Twitch. Arabic-speaking viewers have built a thriving creator ecosystem on Kick, led by big names like Absi and Maherko, who have viewership hours that rival any streamer anywhere on the planet. games like PUBG Mobile, GTA Vand CS2 The Kings World Cup Nations proves that football and creator culture are a more powerful combination than anywhere else in MENA.
However, the region is still in its early stages of growth. As Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 investments continue to mature, young digital natives are expanding their online habits. GTA VI MENA’s live streaming audience continues to grow. For game publishers and brands looking to reach a passionate and rapidly growing audience, this data makes a compelling case for putting MENA at the center of their streaming strategy.
Interested in other regional analysis? We also covered the current state of streaming in Japan in full here.
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