Viewership on political streams is up 56% year-over-year

Anyone who followed the so-called “influencer election” knows that political live streams have become a significant cultural force. Now, thanks to Streams Charts, we know just how big it is. The data provider that covers platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Kick has reported that viewership on political streams has gone up 56% year-over-year, with the 2024 U.S. presidential election serving as a major catalyst.

That data point comes from Streams Charts’ Politics in Livestreaming report, which includes viewership numbers from 2022 through 2025 (so far). During the first quarter of 2024, political streams raked in about 2.61 billion hours of watch time across all the platforms Streams Charts measures. By Q1 2025, that figure had gone up to 3.4 billion hours of watch time, which actually represented a slight decrease over the previous quarter.

Several factors have contributed to that growth spurt. World leaders like Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez have become creators themselves, and global news organizations have established round-the-clock digital hubs.

The 2024 U.S. election cycle served as a level-up moment for political creators, who saw their influence rise dramatically across the board. The Trump administration’s decision to let creators into the White House press room suggests that the impact of the influencer election is here to stay.

“In Q1 2025, political content nearly matched the volume of gaming streams on Twitch, a platform known for its gaming roots,” reads the Streams Charts report

. “In absolute terms, politics accounted for over 11% of all content watched across the industry. And that share is still rising.”

The breakdown of that viewership by platform reveals some curious trends. YouTube accounts for nearly 98% of all watch time in the Streams Charts data, thanks in large part to its status as the go-to hub for Indian news agencies. Twitch gets less watch time than YouTube but contributes more overall channels to the political mix; that’s a recurring phenomenon in statistical analyses of the Amazon-owned hub. And then there’s Rumble, which continues to serve as a haven for right-wingers.

Or, to put it more succinctly: YouTube’s most-watched political stream is the official Al Jazeera channel, Twitch’s top entry belongs to progressive firebrand Hasan Piker, and Rumble viewers flocked to the self-explanatory Right Side Broadcasting Network.

Ongoing trends suggest that political creators will be able to consolidate these gains in the coming years. Piker, for example, gets less than half of his audience from U.S.-based viewers, despite his overt focus on American politics. He’s becoming a household name around the world, giving him an immense platform for his left-wing opinions.

And then you have streamers like Kat Abughazaleh and Fidias Panayiotou, who have taken their activity a step further by running for office themselves. Will the growth of political streams convince more creators to walk down that path? If so, the voters who are sick of reelecting aging candidates would surely appreciate it.