I think for most streams there's no real need to watch them from start til end. You can just tune in and out at will without missing much. For many it probably just runs in the background while they do other things, like some people do with soap operas on TV.

Personally, as a programmer I usually have a Twitch stream (often Tyler1's) running on a second monitor as background noise if I'm not listening to music. However, the most active chatters are mainly college students in my experience.

The streamer is 8 hours in, not the audience. Also, if you think how much free time children, teenagers and NEET adults have, yeah, 5+h per day watching games is completely doable during a pandemic.

It’s good background noise for me, albeit I watch relaxing background content here, things like Pokémon or Animal Crossing.

You have it on in the background. Some streams have a very engaged community, everyone is there flooding the chat all the time. But in most streams the viewers aren't engaging, they have it on the background, it is on their second monitor while they play games or work or whatever. Viewership went way up during the pandemic too.

I don't think it is for everyone but I prefer it to TV/Netflix/whatever. I didn't even play games when I started watching (I do now, but only once or twice a week). Some people prefer amateur porn to Brazzers.

> What kind of lifestyle there’s that allows the consumption of full day long content?

Kids.

Adults without kids.

When I was in college I had about 10 hours of free time a day.