More Streams, Longer Watch Times

This was the first week we measured watch time for every single grid opened on ViewGrid, and the results showed a clear pattern. The more streams people added to a grid, the longer they tended to keep it open. It’s one thing to assume that people who put in more effort to set up a layout are more committed, but now we have the numbers to see it.

How Long People Watch

We measured watch time on 1,774 grids between September 21 and September 27. Overall, the median watch time was 2 minutes. This means that if you lined up every session from shortest to longest, the one in the middle would be 2 minutes long. 33% of all grids were kept open for longer than 15 minutes, and 20% stayed open for over an hour.

But the numbers change when we look at the number of streams. For grids with just one stream, the median watch time was so short that most closed within the first minute. Only 13% of these single-stream sessions lasted longer than 15 minutes.

Adding a second stream made a difference. For grids with two streams, the median watch time rose to 2 minutes, and the share of grids open past 15 minutes more than doubled to 31%.

The biggest shift came with grids of three or more streams. For this group, which makes up the majority of our usage, the median watch time was 5 minutes. 38% of these larger grids were kept open for more than 15 minutes. People who use the multi-stream viewer to build more complex layouts are the ones who stick around the longest.

Bears, Mobile Legends, and Padel

The most popular event on the site this week, by a wide margin, was Fat Bear Week 2026. Its live grid, built from the Katmai National Park bear cams, was opened 783 times from the event page. This annual tournament to find the fattest bear is a very different kind of live event from the sports and esports that usually fill the top spots.

The next most popular events were all professional esports tournaments for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Three different regional leagues appeared in the top five: MPL Malaysia Season 18 with 76 grid opens, MPL Philippines Season 18 with 50 grid opens, and MPL Indonesia Season 18 with 41 grid opens.

Rounding out the top events was the FIP Platinum Lyon padel tournament, whose grid was opened 47 times from its event page.

A Look at Grid Setups

This week, 4,448 grids were opened. The busiest day was September 21, when 823 grids were created. The daily counts for the rest of the week were 578 on September 22, 563 on September 23, 689 on September 24, 605 on September 25, 587 on September 26, and 603 on September 27.

Looking at how those grids were built, 69% of them contained three or more streams. This aligns with the watch time data, showing that most people are building the kind of larger, more involved layouts that they keep open longer.

A smaller group of people built much larger grids. We saw 539 grids with nine or more streams running at once. We also saw 339 grids that were cross-platform, meaning they included streams from at least two different sources like YouTube and Twitch on the same screen.

This is our first look at this level of watch time data. The connection between grid size and session length is the clearest finding so far.

Coming up next week

Premier Padel Rotterdam P2 — starts September 28
BLAST Slam VIII (Dota 2) — starts September 29
NHL Opening Night 2026-27 Season — starts September 29. The official broadcast is paid; on ViewGrid you can line up free commentary and watchalong streams.
WTT China Smash — starts October 1
Austin City Limits Music Festival — starts October 2. The official broadcast is paid; on ViewGrid you can line up free commentary and watchalong streams.
Europe Youth Top 10 2026 — starts October 2