Live Streaming Takes Over 2021 Surpassing All Other Media

1995 saw the introduction of live streaming as part of online media. Later that year, RealPlayer, the company that invented the media element, hosted the first public live streaming event. Ever since, live streaming has been gradually rising to prominence until last year, when it took off to become one of the most consumed forms of online media. The reason for its sudden rise to fame is Covid 19, a pandemic that saw people spend most of their time indoors as part of the stipulations to curb the spread of the virus.

The popularity of live streaming later spilt over to 2021, with live streaming by mobile recording enormous traffic. According to AT&T, the core network traffic increased by 22%, whereas wireless voice minutes spiked 30%. The swell was due to the work-from-home trend that was adopted at the peak of lockdown. On the other hand, T-Mobile/Sprint saw a 60% spike in mobile hotspot usage. The numbers are expected to rise further as more people learn how to speed up Android phones to have an ultimate live streaming experience.

Existing Trends Fueled by Live Streaming Popularity During the Pandemic

Live streaming may not have brought about new digital trends, but it has definitely fueled a couple. For instance, as soon as Covid 19 became a pandemic, the world of sports underwent an incredible digital transition. Since football fans could no longer attend arenas to watch their favorite teams play, key individuals in the sports industry decided it was excellent to broadcast the event and let football fans live stream games conveniently using their phones. Even popular sportsbooks like bet365 and Unibet which are rated as some of the best betting apps in Australia and other big markets have upped their game when it comes to live streaming sports.

The live streaming trend seems to be spreading over to other sectors as well, with research indicating 8.8 billion hours were recorded courtesy of video games live streams in the Q1 of 2021.

Overall live stream hours are expected to keep rising sharply due to different aspects, including the increase of mobile live streaming apps. By 2022, the number of live viewers on mobile alone will have toppled the 2019 live streaming percentage.

The Most Popular Live Streaming Apps

With the growth of the live streaming market globally, different companies have come up with applications to ease how people live stream events. However, not every app in the market has managed to command live viewers' attention for different reasons. While others struggle to remain relevant, applications like Twitch break records year after year. It is currently the top live streaming application on the globe. That saw 47% of US video games live streams happen on the Twitch platform by February 2021.

In the same Q1 2021, the mobile app managed to clock more than 6.34 billion hours. Another live streaming app that has the most followers is ESPN mobile app which is free to download. However, to live stream games on your mobile phone requires you to subscribe to the appropriate ESPN video/TV packages. The application broadcasts NFL and football games, among many other selections.

By 2022, video forecast is expected to cover 79% of the general mobile traffic. Mobile companies are currently migrating to individual networks to increase the speed making their networks capable of handling the highly anticipated 5G connectivity.