Fortnite ranks among most watched games on Youtube in 2020

New data shows that Fortnite content is performing better than you may have expected.

Head of Global Gaming at YouTube, Ryan “Fwiz” Wyatt, has published an article detailing the platform’s incredibly successful year. YouTube Gaming clocked in over 100 billion hours of total watch time in 2020, across more than 40 million active gaming channels.

Contrary to the hundreds of “Dead game” comments reliably spammed under any official Fortnite post, Epic Games’ smash hit Battle Royale still seems to be raking in the views. The title featured in multiple categories, alongside titans like Minecraft, Roblox and GTA.

Fortnite placed fifth in the “Global top overall games watched of 2020” list, collecting an impressive 67 billion views. This number was not far behind the second, third and fourth most popular games, who pulled between 70 and 75 billion apiece, though Minecraft dwarfed them all with a jaw dropping 201 billion views.

We just had our best year ever @YouTubeGaming, and it's thanks to YOU. The Creators, Publishers, and Gamers watching every day who have made YouTube Gaming the largest Gaming platform in the world.

But just how big of a year was it? Let's take a look: https://t.co/tLC4ezvUx4 pic.twitter.com/QQ9I2Vw3s6

— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) December 8, 2020

On top of this, Fortnite also ranked as YouTube’s third most-watched live game of 2020. Although a handful of our favorite creators have signed exclusively with YouTube, the majority of Fortnite streamers, including NRG Clix, who has had a huge 2020 in terms of viewership, still remain loyal to Twitch.

Speaking of superstar personalities, Aussie content powerhouse LazarBeam appeared as one of the top 10 creators by gaming views in 2020, as well as one of the top live streamers. His coverage of both the “Travis Scott: Astronomical” and “The Device” Fortnite events were highlighted as some of biggest live events of the year, netting a stunning 16 million and 8 million views respectively.

It’s fantastic to see proof that Fortnite is still so prevalent, and with Season 5 sparking the return of OGs such as Nickmercs and Tfue, the trend looks set to continue. Bring on 2021!