Black Lives Matter Protests Among the Most-Watched Content on Twitch

Emilee Helm -

On May 25, George Floyd was killed while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers. His death, deemed an unjust act of police brutality, has since resulted in demands for change. Many protesters and activists have taken to the streets, demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others, and platforms like Twitch have provided public access to information and a platform for content creators to raise awareness.

It is vitally important to recognize the significance and reach of this historic moment. In order to do that, we measured the Black Lives Matter movement's impact and how it has changed the landscape of Twitch over the last week. Using real-time data, we examine how influencers have embraced their platform to stand up against injustice.

WOKE on Twitch

WOKE, a community dedicated to compiling and broadcasting live streams of protests, has gained traction since May 28. Averaging over 20K concurrent viewers with each broadcast, the channel has provided viewers with the opportunity to observe protests from different perspectives across the United States. This comes at a time when many are still actively staying home to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and may not be able to physically protest, yet still want to be part of the civil rights movement.

Here are the quick stats on WOKE:

  • Over 1,769,098 hours watched since May 28, making it the 5th most-watched channel across all of Twitch
  • The stream averages 18.9K concurrent viewers
  • The average viewer watches for approximately 15 minutes
  • The channel has gained 80.5K followers since its first broadcast on May 28

The WOKE community is a testament to the evolution of our world, how we collectively gather and organize, and the importance of having access to raw, unfiltered footage to keep us informed.

#BLACKLIVESMATTER Tags

For those standing in solidarity with the Black community, content creators began tagging their broadcasts with #BlackLivesMatter and #BLM to show their support. Streams tagged and titled with #BlackLivesMatter grew substantially.

At its peak, over 1500 channels included keywords related to #BlackLivesMatter or referencing the ongoing protests in their title. Streams with these keywords were watched for approximately 700K hours each day between May 30 and June 4, and saw average content consumption increase over seven-fold.

Charity and Raising Awareness

Several streamers have utilized their platform to bring more attention to BLM, seeking justice for George Floyd and others who have died at the hands of police.

On May 28 and 30, YouTube stars Jenna “JennaMarbles” Mourey and Julien Solomita took to Twitch to raise money for the George Floyd Memorial Fund and Campaign Zero. Together, the broadcasts raised over $10,000 for these causes.

Many other channels are actively raising money for the cause. DrDisrespect has pledged that all money earned from donations in June will be donated in support of Black communities. Likewise, GamesDoneQuick will be taking the total amount of funds received from subscribers and bit donations and giving it to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in support of Black Lives Matter. These are just a few of the notable acts taking place throughout the community. As streamers take the time to recognize Black content creators, we expect to see a shift in this community that often shies away from political discussion.

Gamesight stands in solidarity with the Black community and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. It is now, more vital than ever, to not be silent and to help to find ways to bring an end to police brutality and the systemic racism that plagues our nation.