Concurrent viewers

A live stream produces two numbers that get conflated. Concurrent viewers counts everyone watching right now, and it rises and falls through the broadcast as people arrive and leave. Total views counts everyone who dropped in at any point, so it is always the larger figure.

Streamers quote average concurrents for a fair picture of how well a stream held people, and peak concurrents for the best moment of it. Sponsors and platforms tend to care about the average, because a spike from a raid or a notification says less about an audience than a steady line does.