#Top5OnTwitch for July 6th - 12th

Which games are rising on the Twitch charts? Which streamers are dominating the most popular titles? Check out our official rankings!

Note: The following rankings are based on a combination of both gross and percentage change to viewership and total streams. As such, dominant and stable titles near the top of the charts will not always, or often, appear. To compare to last week's rankings, click here.

Graphs for Top Rising titles show previous two weeks for context.

Top 5 Rising

1. Warframe

Increase Viewership: 2,292,483 Hours (848.68%)

Increase Channels: 3875 Creators (93.35%)

This is an interesting week for our top game. As you can see above, Warframe makes it to the top of our list on the strength of just a single day of streaming, as the announcements from the title's annual convention, Tennocon, drew enormous numbers of viewers for its big reveals and announcements about the game's future. Including the unveiling of a new cinematic opening created by Hollywood director Dan Trachtenberg, Digital Extremes showed off new worlds, game modes, quests, and much more, and the audience for the wildly successful free-to-play shooter ate it all up.

Normally, such a fleeting increase in viewership wouldn't necessarily bring a game to the top of our charts, but, in addition to its single big day, Warframe also nearly doubled its participating streamers from the previous week, with the hype of the announcements and the excitement around the event itself nearly doubled the total channels. Combined, these two numbers make its rise the most substantial on the platform for the week.

2. Apex Legends

Increase Viewership: 4,065,448 Hours (81.7 %)

Increase Channels: 17,113 Creators (21.09%)

Last week, the release of Apex Legends' second season of content resulted in the game's biggest day of viewership in months, buy then quickly fell to less impressive numbers over the next two days. With a full weekend to really draw back people in, though, the game bounced back in a big way, with daily peaks of at least 80,000 viewers every day, and often higher than 100,000. Typically when a title falls off so dramatically after only one day's access to new content, it indicates that the new modes, characters, and other additions aren't quite grabbing players and keeping them around. This time, though, it appears that players were mostly waiting for the weekend to really dive into what's new.

It's been an interesting ride for Apex since arriving in February. While it took Twitch by storm when it first arrived, the decision to hold back content releases and instead elect a "seasonal" cadence, dropping large updates with longer periods of time between them as opposed to the almost weekly releases of a game like Fortnite, has meant a slow, consistent decline as players moved on without anything new and shiny to keep them engaged. The result was many writing the game off as having peaked early, riding on excitement which is now waning. Those who said as much seemed to be justified by the two days following the release of the latest season, but the days since have shown that, perhaps, this content strategy can, indeed, keep the game's community alive and engaged. It will be interesting to see just how long this bump lasts, and whether it changes how Respawn releases new content in the future.

3. World of Warcraft

Increase Viewership: 2,186,368 Hours (54.24%)

Increase Channels: 6016 Creators (32.35%)

A new raid, The Eternal Palace, was opened up in the world of Azeroth on July 9th, and it resulted in a big bump in viewership on Twitch, enough to make it our third most trending title on the platform for the week. New content is one of the most common reasons for a title to rise up the Twitch charts, and raids, in particular, are World of Warcraft's bread and butter. What makes this particular raid interesting isn't just that it resulted in a big bump in viewership and players, but that it will also be the first to be featured in an official competition that had already been an unofficial part of the community for a long time.

Redbull announced the "Race to World First" event on July 7th, to take place on the 16th, which will stream live from Germany as guilds from all over the world compete to complete the new raid. Turning what was already an ad-hoc competition in the game's community into a full-fledged esports event is potentially a huge moment for WoW. Though the title has already more than earned its spot in the gaming hall of fame, its place on Twitch has long been relatively small. Events like this could prove to be a powerful means of increasing the game's footprint on the platform, opening the doors to other similar events in the future. It will be fun to watch how it plays out.

4. Satisfactory

Increase Viewership: 118,804 Hours (113.93%)

Increase Channels: 581 Creators (41.86%)

The first-person construction-building sim saw its second large update this week, with a new train system and the addition of nuclear power hitting the game on July 4th. While the holiday may have limited just how much this drew streamers back to the game at first, by the weekend a large influx of players made it one of the fastest growing titles on the platform, rising to a peak of over 8000 viewers after averaging less than 800 prior to the update's release.

While that increase is still relatively subdued, it's the corresponding increase in streamers that lands it a spot in this week's list, rising by over 40%, one of the larger numbers for titles making such substantial gains in viewership. Again, content updates are the biggest reason games return to the Twitch charts, and it's an important part of supporting any ongoing title. This is just one more example.

5. The Messenger

Increase Viewership: 54,101 Hours (2276.68%)

Increase Channels: 307 Creators (281.65%)

Speaking of new content, it was the release of a brand new free expansion, Picnic Panic, that brought hundreds of creators back to a title that had essentially no Twitch presence to speak of: The Messenger. Released last August, the game is a traditional side-scrolling Metroidvania, and the new update brings three new levels and bosses along with a new soundtrack, and it brought the game from the doldrums at the very bottom of the Twitch charts to one of the top 200 games on the platform. The overall numbers might be modest, but the size of that turnaround gives it the last spot in this weeks rankings.

Top 5 New Releases

1. Dragon Quest Builders 2 (WW Release)

Total Viewership: 176,728 Hours, 77th Overall

Total Channels: 954 Creators , 182nd Overall

Originally released in Japan, Dragon Quest Builders 2 brings a co-op capable Minecraft-inspired experience to the world of the long-running RPG franchise, and, now that it's been unveiled for the whole world, it has quickly established a strong foundation of creators, easily taking the top spot in our list of new releases for the week. Minecraft has long been one of the biggest titles in the world of gaming content, as the completely open nature of its gameplay means that everyone can play it differently, build different things, discover different caverns and resources, and tell their own unique story. Builders takes all of those advantages and adds an established IP in Dragon Quest, a series with a strong and dedicated following. The results, so far, speak for themselves. It's an exciting moment for the team at Square Enix, and a game worth keeping an eye on moving forward into the future.

2. Earth Defense Force 5 (PC Release)

Total Viewership: 92.821 Hours, 134th Overall

Total Channels: 538 Creators, 284th Overall

Much like the game above, Earth Defense Force 5 was already available for some, as it was initially a PS4 exclusive. As you can see above, that exclusivity meant that, as far as streaming, the game had essentially no Twitch presence. But, after hitting the PC on July 11th, the game immediately hit a peak of over 12,000 total viewers, enough to take the number two spot for new releases on our list and a sign that, moving in to next week, there are even more players and viewers to come. With so little time on the platform prior to the end of our rankings period, it's difficult to say whether we expect it to continue trending upward, but for now, it's release was still one of the most successful in streaming for the week.

3. Blazing Chrome

Total Viewership: 23,086 Hours, 347th Overall

Total Channels: 334 Creators, 402nd Overall

Blazing Chrome is a love-letter to all things Contra, and it released on July 8th, being picked up by over 300 creators and reaching peak viewership of over 1400 audience members. A small indie title, games of this type don't typically land near the top of the Twitch charts, and that's not something we expect is in the title's future. However, for something so small and unexpected, this is an impressive debut. The team at Joymasher build something nostalgic and fun, and though it has a short life-span in regards to streaming, with it unlikely to hold an audiences attention beyond a single playthrough, this is a real win for a game that wouldn't necessarily be expected to reach our charts. Congratulations to everyone involved.

4. Godhood

Total Viewership: 14,113 Hours, 475th Overall

Total Channels: 63 Creators, 1151st Overall

Godhood is, surprise surprise, a god game, wherein you play as an all powerful deity shaping the world and guiding its inhabitants in a strategy setting. Like the Black and White series way back when, the game features myriad possibilities, with every playthrough different and unique. The game is in early access, and it shows, with a lot of content still planned, which is likely a big reason why its numbers are still relatively subdued, but still, this format is ideal for variety streamers who regularly host more cerebral, world-building and strategy-oriented titles for their audiences. Congratulations to Abbey Games on making this week's list.

5. Peach Ball: Senran Kagura

Total Viewership: 13,442 Hours, 491st Overall

Total Channels: 63 Creators, 1152nd Overall

Rounding out the list during a slower week for new releases is Senran Kagura Peach Ball, a pinball-like board game released for the Nintendo Switch. Leveraging scantily clad anime characters as its primary draw, it finds itself in a category that still, to this point, has not carved out a large niche for itself on Twitch: games with nudity and sexual themes. In addition to simply having a smaller community of dedicated players, Twitch's guidelines on content makes it unusual for a game with these themes to be allowed on the platform at all. Still, this title, while risque, does not violate the guidelines, and after release hit peak viewership of nearly 1200 Twitch users. We're not going to see it on any other lists in the future, but publisher Marvelous can be excited about it taking the last spot in this week's new release rankings.

Top 5 Viewed Overall

1. Fortnite (↑ 1)

Total Viewership: 19,263,054 Hours (+13.71%)

Total Channels: 326,596 (+4.60%)

Top Creators by Total Viewership

1. TFue - 2,068,873 Hours

2. NICKMERCS - 633,545 Hours

3. Symfuhny - 606,652 Hours

4. Dakotaz - 516,641 Hours

5. DrLupo - 358,808 Hours

2. League of Legends (↑ 1)

Total Viewership” 18,907,138 Hours (+47.44%)

Total Channels: 85,056 (+9.72%)

Top Creators by Total Viewership

1. Riot Games - 1,811,213 Hours

2. LCK Korea - 805,408 Hours

3. Lol_ambition - 481,163 Hours

4. Riot Games Brazil - 407,157 Hours

5. TFBlade - 397,862 Hours

3. Dota 2 (↑ 3)

Total Viewership: 16,825,672 Hours (+51.19%)

Total Channels: 16,198 Creators (+6.50%)

Top Creators by Total Viewership

1. Dota2mc_ru - 4,829,073 Hours

2. BeyondTheSummit - 3,008,772 Hours

3. Dota2RuHub - 1,615,680 Hours

4. Ybicanoooobov - 367,936 Hours

5. BeyondTheSummit2 - 317,542 Hours

4. Grand Theft Auto V (Same)

Total Viewership: 15,647,795 Hours (+18.77%)

Total Channels: 39,001 Creators (+18.68%)

Top Creators by Total Viewership

1. Lord Kebun - 710,107 Hours

2. dasMEHDI - 297,437 Hours

3. Buddha - 265,835 Hours

4. 狂暴小建 (a541021) - 246,411 Hours

5. Timmac - 235,398 Hours

5. Teamfight Tactics (↓ 4)

Total Viewership: 15,138,920 Hours (-13.65%)

Total Channels: 47,943 Creators (-13.47%)

Top Creators by Total Viewership

1. DisguisedToast - 695,858 Hours

2. 한동숙 (handongsuk) - 644,765 Hours

3. Rakin - 517,544 Hours

4. itsHafu - 498,368 Hours

5. Dogdog - 441,361 Hours

Want to compare the above to last week's rankings and see how things have changed? Check them out here! And be sure to check out our breakdown of how content creators' monetization methods impact your relationships with them, and to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for all the latest blogs, announcements, and game marketing news from the team at GAMESIGHT!