YouTube Gaming had an incredible year with 100B watch time hours, 40M+ active channels

Despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, millions have turned to YouTube gaming in 2020, making it the biggest year ever with 100 billion watch time hours globally and more than 40 million active gaming channels.

"The world has faced its share of challenges in 2020. Despite the ups and down, many have turned to gaming on YouTube as a way to find connection, entertainment, and to share moments with friends and loved ones during these trying times. Through it all, we've connected even more deeply with gaming creators — some even had their biggest year ever on YouTube in 2020," YouTube said.

According to the figures released by YouTube, more than 80,000 gaming creators hit 100,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 gaming creators hit 5 million subscribers. Over 350 gaming creators reached a whopping 10 million subscribers in 2020.

Speaking of the top watched games of 2020 in the overall category, Minecraft topped the list with 201 billion views, followed by Roblox (75B), Garena Free Fire (72B), Grand Theft Auto V (70B), Fortnite (67B).

In the live games segment, Minecraft was the most-watched game of 2020. Garena Free Fire, Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, and PUBG Mobile grabbed the second, third, fourth and fifth spot, respectively.

"This year, we've seen an uptick in live gaming streams, which accounted for more than 10 billion watch time hours. And we've seen creators like Dream and TheFamousFilms, and publishers like Supercell and PlayStation use Premieres to generate excitement in advance of major announcements, enabling fans to virtually gather, engage, and enjoy a shared experience together," the video-streaming giant said.