TikTok Live 50.9% Market Share; CS2 Tops Q2 Esports
TikTok Live accounted for 50.9% of global live-streaming hours in Q2 2026 with 8.9 billion hours; Counter-Strike 2 led esports tournament viewership with 209 million hours.
Stream Hatchet’s Q2 2026 Live-Streaming Trends Report shows TikTok Live captured 50.9% of global live-streaming hours in the second quarter of 2026, generating 8.9 billion hours watched. Across all tracked platforms, total global live-streaming watch time reached 17.5 billion hours in Q2 2026.
The report shows TikTok Live’s viewership rose 3.9% quarter-on-quarter, surpassing the combined total of traditional legacy streaming services, which produced about 8.5 billion hours in the quarter. Stream Hatchet also reports that traditional core platforms declined roughly 6% year-on-year to around 8.6 billion hours.
Twitch remained the second-largest platform with 4.5 billion hours watched, representing a 25.9% share of the market. YouTube Gaming logged 1.8 billion hours, a 19.3% quarter-on-quarter drop, accounting for a 10.3% market share. The report attributes the audience shift to increased mobile-first viewing and the rise of vertical, mobile-tailored broadcasts that favor shorter, interactive formats.
In esports tournament viewership, Counter-Strike 2 led Q2 2026 with 209 million hours watched. Intel Extreme Masters Cologne contributed to CS2’s total and reached a peak concurrent audience of 2.7 million viewers. League of Legends ranked second with 166 million hours and a peak concurrent audience of 2.2 million during early LCK rounds. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang placed third with 119 million hours and recorded a single-event peak of 2.9 million viewers during MPL Indonesia Season 17. Rocket League was the only top title outside the multiplayer online battle arena and tactical shooter categories.
The report notes industry responses to changing viewing patterns, including a partnership between ESL FACEIT Group and TikTok to produce vertical esports broadcasts, add custom overlay features and enable co-streaming directly within the TikTok app.
Stream Hatchet’s full report includes additional details on creator rankings, event metrics and platform comparisons for Q2 2026.
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