Twitch in 2026: 8.6 Billion Hours of Gaming, LoL Leads and Rubius Dominates in Spain

Twitch has just put the numbers on the table. As reported by Vandal, the platform published its State of Gaming 2026 report, and the headline figure is striking: between January 1 and September 1 of this year, more than 8.6 billion hours of gaming content were watched worldwide. The document also breaks down which games draw the most attention, which creators dominate in Spain, and where live streaming trends are heading.

Why does this matter to us? Because the ranking of the most-watched games is, in practice, the map of where the audience is for competing and creating content. If you play competitively or stream, knowing which titles concentrate the hours tells you where the viewers are, where brands are looking, and where the gap to grow is easier or harder to open.

What you need to know

• More than 8.6 billion hours of gaming content watched on Twitch globally between January 1 and September 1, 2026.
• League of Legends is the most-watched game in the world, followed by Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto V, Valorant and World of Warcraft.
• Those five titles together add up to nearly 1.7 billion hours: a huge slice of the pie concentrated in very few games.
• In Spain, League of Legends also leads, but Valorant and Fortnite round out the podium.
• Rubius surpasses 21 million hours watched in the period, with Minecraft, TCG Card Shop Simulator and Marvel Rivals among the games that worked best for him.

A global ranking dominated by the usual suspects

The first thing that stands out is the stability. League of Legends remains the king of live streaming more than a decade after its release, and behind it come Counter-Strike and Valorant, the two tactical shooters that hold up much of the competitive calendar. GTA V, with its roleplay ecosystem, and World of Warcraft complete a top five without a single surprise. Novelty doesn't sell hours; community does.

The concentration figure is the one that gives the most food for thought: nearly 1.7 billion hours for five games out of a total of 8.6 billion. Put another way, a handful of titles absorbs around a fifth of everything watched in gaming. The rest is spread across hundreds of games, releases that trend for a week, and niches that live off loyal but small audiences.

Spain: LoL, Valorant and Fortnite, with Rubius on top

The Spanish market has its own flavor. League of Legends repeats at the top, but second and third place go to Valorant and Fortnite, displacing Counter-Strike and GTA V compared to the global ranking. It's consistent with what we see in our community: Riot's tactical shooter and Epic's battle royale remain the games with the strongest pulse among young Spanish-speaking audiences.

As for creators, Rubius surpasses 21 million hours watched in the period analyzed. And the interesting detail is what he did it with: Minecraft, TCG Card Shop Simulator and Marvel Rivals. Not a single title from the global top five. It confirms something we always say: the biggest creators don't live off the trending game, they live off their personality and an audience that follows them wherever they go.

Our take

Here at the Underworld Lordz editorial team, we read this report with a mix of reassurance and frustration. Reassurance because the games we compete in (LoL, Valorant, Counter-Strike, Fortnite) are precisely the ones that concentrate the audience: there are viewers, there's an ecosystem, and there are reasons to keep investing in those rosters. Frustration because that same concentration leaves very little room for everything else. A team that bets on a game outside that circuit is competing for scraps of attention, no matter how skilled it is.

For the team's creators the message is different and, deep down, more hopeful. The Rubius case proves that hours watched aren't earned just by picking the right game. Streaming LoL or Valorant puts you in the category with the biggest audience, but also the most saturated one, where you're just another channel among thousands. A card shop simulator can take you further if you do it with good judgment and a community behind you. Our recipe: a competitive base in the big games and original content in titles where your personality makes the difference.

And one criticism for Twitch: the report counts the hours, but it doesn't show how they're split between small and mid-sized channels, which make up the majority of the platform. Without that data, the State of Gaming is more a postcard of the big names than a real picture of the ecosystem.

What do you think?

The ranking says LoL leads the world and that Valorant and Fortnite flank it in Spain, but everyone has their own experience with live streaming. Do you think it's worth betting on the games with the biggest audience even if they're saturated, or would you rather grow in a niche like Rubius does with his simulators? Tell us in the team chat or on our Discord.