The 2024 U.S. presidential election was one of the biggest events of the year, and it showed in the record-breaking livestream viewership across platforms on election day.
What Happened: Streams Charts reported that live streams covering the election generated nearly 84 million hours of watch time - almost five times more than the viewership for the September debates between Vice President Kamala Harris and President-Elect Donald Trump.
The dominant platform for election coverage was Alphabet Inc.-owned
Peak viewership for political streams on election day hit over 9.14 million viewers, with the average number of viewers approaching 3.5 million. Audience engagement spiked closer to the end of voting and the announcement of results.
While the debates lasted just a few hours, some election day broadcasts ran non-stop from the start of voting until the results were announced.
The most-watched broadcast was Fox Corp.-owned
Why It Matters: All the top broadcasts were on YouTube, as the platform remains the primary choice for TV networks to stream their content online.
Among individual streamers, commentators Dan Bongino and Steven Crowder on Rumble drew the largest audiences, both setting new personal viewership records.
Streamer HasanAbi, on Amazon.com Inc.-owned
Throughout the election campaign, Trump consistently outpaced Harris in mentions on Twitch, holding around a 70% share compared to Harris' 30%. This trend continued on election day, with Trump's mentions jumping to 104K versus Harris' 41.6K.
