#Top5OnTwitch for Nov. 30th - Dec. 6th

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. Check out last week's numbers to compare.

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

Top Five Rising

1. Halo: The Master Chief Collection + Halo Reach

Increase Viewership: 2,831,752 Hours (3240.34%)

Increase Channels: 33,805 Creators (2803.07%)

Halo returned to the PC for the first time since 2007 as the remaster of Halo: Reach was released as both a standalone purchase and the first part of that platform’s iteration of the Master Chief Collection, with further entries in the series still forthcoming. With it being both a remaster and a re-release for a new platform, the title doesn’t meet our requirements to be added to our list of rising new releases, but the scale of this launch is very much comparable to that of a brand new title, with its nearly 34,000 participating streamers last week the ninth highest such number on all of Twitch.

Many high-profile creators streamed the game multiple times, with summit1g leading the way in accruing nearly 440,000 hours of total viewership, followed by MoonMoon (167,000 Hours), xQc (140,000 Hours), DrDisrespect (137,000 Hours) and loltyler (113,000 Hours) rounding out the top five. Halo is, in many ways, the direct predecessor to some of today’s most popular games. The world of competitive gaming first truly matured around the series, and some of the world’s most popular creators, chief amongst them Mixer superstar Ninja, originated as professional Halo competitors. It is, rightfully, a highly venerated series, which is why so many have waited anxiously, for so long, to be able to play these games on the PC. The magnitude of these first days after launch prove that energy has far from dissipated in the years spent waiting.

This isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of the Master Chief Collection, either. While the nostalgia-factor will fade, this new version of Halo: Reach comes with full mod support, which could open up entirely new possibilities for content creators, all of which is secondary to the promise of even further entries in the series making their way to the PC in the months and, perhaps, years ahead. No doubt, whenever the next release hits, this proves we’ll likely be seeing it at the top of the Twitch charts.

2. Raft

Increase Viewership: 483,721 Hours (2997.33%)

Increase Channels: 1808 Creators (267.06%)

Early Access titles rely on a steady stream of updates and follow-through on promised changes and improvements in order to be successful, particularly on Twitch. The survival and crafting title wherein players travel across the ocean while building an ever bigger and more complex raft from materials found in the environment managed to accomplish both, this week, as the title’s tenth major overhaul managed to upgrade and improve the game while also delivering something the developers have been discussing for months: the story.

The latest addition to the title from Redbeet Interactive and publisher Axolot Games contains the first chapter of the game’s narrative, delivered through puzzles and lore items littered throughout the game world. While it also added new environments, enemies, items, and much more, it’s the story which is likely responsible for such a large spike in participating streamers. For the first time, players and their audiences can begin pulling back the curtain on the game’s mysteries, and while improvements to the gameplay might make the non-narrative elements better, it’s the narrative that provides something really novel, a brand new gameplay loop that dramatically changes the context of the experience.

These numbers indicate the audience was excited to share this new experience with their fans, and bode well for the game’s future, should the team continue to deliver on their promises. This high of a spot in our rankings is very impressive from a smaller-studio title, and something worthy of recognition.  

3. Life Is Strange 2

Increase Viewership: 259,115 Hours (1505.41%)

Increase Channels: 1576 Creators (466.27%)

Speaking of narrative, the Life is Strange series is built entirely on the concept of story, with an evolved point-and-click style that focuses on character interactions and the twists and turns of its mysteries. Released episodically, the fifth and final chapter emerged this past week, bringing creators back to the title in large numbers to finish the tale alongside their fans.

Games like this, focused on puzzles and dialog choices, are more oriented towards an individual experience, not just lacking in multiplayer, but also in flashy or tense combat or and ‘endgame’ that can be experienced into perpetuity. In spite of this, it has enjoyed steady success on Twitch, rising up again with each successive chapter. This most recent entry’s initial peak of  over 23,000 concurrent viewers is only slightly lower than the 28,000 of chapter four and 30,000 of chapter three, while total participating creators has remained nearly the same, with peaks of 232, 230, and 228 streamers, respectively. This has allowed the game to maintain relevance in the world of content creation for over a year.

Episodic releases may have emerged as a common strategy largely as a product of the economics of game development, but they have also been revealed as a powerful way to strengthen the long-term health of what would typically be a short-lived title on Twitch. Having grabbed the attention of its player-base early, Life is Strange 2 has been able to keep them engaged much longer than is typical of a narratively focused, finite experience. This speak to just how effective this strategy can be.  

4. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Increase Viewership: 317,689 Hours (398.09%)

Increase Channels: 474 Creators (23.17%)

Every once in a while, a title rises back up the Twitch rankings thanks to the participation of a single creator. Few events can better demonstrate the necessity of engaging with content creators and streamers, and this week, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice provides us with an additional example, as big-time streamer xQc pulled the game clear up the ranks into this week’s number four spot.

Playing the game for a total of 13 hours across two streams, xQc averaged just over 23,000 viewers for a total of nearly 300,000 hours of viewership. The closest creator only managed to accrue nearly 11,000 hours. This serves as an excellent example of just how important one creator can become. Months into its lifespan, Sekiro is back into the top five on the strength of xQc’s contributions alone. In a landscape wherein developers and publishers are obsessed with figuring out how to get their games in front of as many people as possible, it’s important to remember that the right creator can be better for your long-term success than one hundred wrong creators.

5. Monster Hunter: World

Increase Viewership: 218,592 Hours (92.02%)

Increase Channels: 1314 Creators (33.00%)

Rounding out our rankings is Monster Hunter World, which experienced significant growth during the final two days of the week, enough to climb back up the Twitch charts. As discussed above, keeping a game relevant on Twitch, particularly one that isn’t focused on multiplayer or competition, is all about maintaining a schedule of steady updates and improvements. This week saw the release of the second free update for the game’s Iceborne expansion, resulting in the bump in viewership visible above.

The latest release features new monster classes and a brand new region to explore. This is in addition to the announcement of a new questline which will be availalbe on the nineteenth. Together, these two announcements were enough to pull players back into the world of Monster Hunter, and serve as another example of how a quality update release schedule can support a title on Twitch for a long, long time.

Top Five New Releases

1. Phoenix Point

Total Viewership: 669,841 Hours (42nd Overall)

Total Channels: 950 Creators (171st Overall)

A few months ago, we discussed the impending release of Phoneix Point, and how it was developing into the perfect evolution of X-Com for the world of streaming. This week, the game finally launched, and it immediately pulled in enough viewers and players to become the fastest rising new release on Twitch.

In many ways, this is an X-Com sequel, coming from the series’ original creator and featuring the same gameplay loops and mechanics, a turn-based tactical affair with randomized maps laid out across a grid. In terms of streaming, this is a good thing; the thoughtful though still chaotic combat, filled with high-stakes decisions and permanent consequences, is tense and exciting while being easy to understand, while the RPG and base-building elements outside of missions can be slowed down, thought through, an opportunity to flex your personality, as a streamer, and get your audience involved.

All of these attributes clearly served Phoenix Point well, with series fans excited to see their favorite creators struggle and triumph through the campaign. The audience wasn’t highly concentrated across a select few channels, either, with only two channels, CohhCarnage and Fextralife, accruing more than 100,000 hours of viewership. This indicates a strong base of streamers, wherein no single creator is solely responsible for the game’s success. That bodes well for the week ahead. We look forward to seeing how it matures over time, but for now, Phoenix Point is indeed the fastest rising new release on all of Twitch. Congratulations to the team at Snapshot Games.

2. Darksiders Genesis

Total Viewership: 339,285 Hours (72nd Overall)

Total Channels: 1206 Creators (139th Overall)

The Darksiders series has managed to overcome a great deal in establishing itself as a beloved franchise. Combining the combat of the God of War series with the exploration of Zelda, the franchise’s satisfying gameplay and epic narrative has attracted a loyal following, enough to help the series survive the shuttering of its original developer and publisher. This week, the series saw its first spin-off, a top-down-style ARPG entitled Darksiders Genesis, and it takes the second spot on our list of the top new releases on twitch.

A prequel to the main series, Genesis is the first game in the series to feature an entirely different gameplay loop, focusing on fighting large numbers of enemies while looting areas for equipment and rewards. That’s a substantial departure from the other entries in the series, but that doesn’t appear to have alienated players. Is this as big as the Darksiders III launch? By no means. That game debuted to a peak of over 500 simultaneous streamers, compared to nearly 150 for Genesis, and viewership numbers diverged in a similar fashion. But, this is spin-off, not a main entry for the series, and with that in mind, this remains a stellar debut for what is really a smaller, more niche title within an already established IP. A fantastic start, we look forward to seeing what comes next.

3. Arise: A Simple Story

Total Viewership: 154,168 Hours (109th Overall)

Total Channels: 243 Creators (462nd Overall)

Arise: A Simple Story is a narrative focused title featuring a wordless story, whimsical environments, and light platforming puzzles. Reminiscent of artistic experiences like Journey, the game features no dialogue, telling its story through pantomimed cutscenes. Games of this type, single-player and focused more on experience than challenge, rely on large-audience streamers to help them climb up the Twitch charts, in this case being played by alanzoka (56,000 hours viewed) and LIRIK (48,000 hours viewed), who are responsible for the spikes visible in the graph above. Those two, alone, we enough to make the game’s debut a streaming success, and demonstrate how important big-name creators are becoming to even the outcome for smaller, more niche titles. Congratulations to the teams at Piccolo Studio and Techland.

4. Tools Up!

Total Viewership: 47,697 Hours (232nd Overall)

Total Channels: 112 Creators (784th Overall)

Tools Up! is a home renovation simulation game focused on co-op, wherein players must wordlessly share equipment and space while trying to accomplish as many construction tasks as possible. Multiplayer games tend to enjoy more success on Twitch, in general, than single-player titles, and the wacky process of working together while not being able to speak is a quality set up in terms of creating fun, exciting streaming content. Still, a smaller title like this needs larger creators to jump on board in order to receive the attention it needs. This week, it was AlanZoka who pulled in the big numbers, playing the game for only an hour, but managing to pull in over 20,000 hours of viewership, just under half of the game’s total. This is the main reason it finds itself a top new release this week. Hopefully, this will lead into a solid second week as more people get their hands on the title. We’ll pay close attention to how it does in the days ahead.

5. Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem

Total Viewership: 35,873 Hours (277th Overall)

Total Channels: 92 Creators (875th Overall)

Rounding out this week’s top five is the mystery adventure Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem. Following in the footsteps of similar literary detective games, such as the Sherlock Holmes game series, it features a strong story and over a dozen hours of investigations, clues, interviews, and overall sleuthing as the player investigates the truth behind the famous Salem Witch Trials. Once again, this is a single-player, narrative game, and that means it’s the personalities of the creators playing the title that will be the big draw on Twitch. In this first week, it was streamer Jerma985 who was responsible for pulling the game up into the top five, accruing nearly 30,000 of the game’s total hours viewed. Again, this is a demonstration of just how important that one perfect creator can be. This week, it made Nancy Drew one of the fastest rising new releases on the platform.

Top Five Most Viewed Overall

1. League of Legends

Total Viewership: 17,666,748 Hours (-0.89%)

Total Channels: 90,732 Creators (+0.32%)

Top Creators by Viewership

1. Riot Games (Official) - 701,587 Hours

2. TFBlade - 527,176 Hours

3. Solary - 421,724 Hours

4. loltyler1 - 421,359 Hours

5. hashinshin - 415,017 Hours

2. Fortnite

Total Viewership: 12,549,606 Hours (-5.17%)

Total Channels: 191,390 Creators (-17.40%)

Top Creators by Viewership

1. NICKMERCS - 664,179 Hours

2. Tfue - 515,882 Hours

3. Bugha - 457,130 Hours

4. SolaryFortnite - 406,822

5. dakotaz - 371,727 Hours

3. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Total Viewership: 11,713,959 Hours (+33.33%)

Total Channels: 57,998 Creators (-0.15%)

Top Creators by Viewership

1. ESL CSGO - 2,494,965 Hours

2. gaules - 1,163,129 Hours

3. FACEIT TV - 1,144,101 Hours

4. CSRuHub - 786,055 Hours

5. ESL CSGOb - 654,274 Hours

4. DOTA 2

Total Viewership: 11,426,554 Hours (+16.83%)

Total Channels: 14,351 Creators (-3.56%)

Top Creators by Viewership

1. DreamHackDota2 Ru - 2,083,814 Hours

2. DreamLeague - 903,140 Hours

3. BeyondTheSummit - 594,882 Hours

4. Gorgc - 384,425 Hours

5. Stray228 - 381,867 Hours

5. Grand Theft Auto V/Online

Total Viewership: 8,149,740 Hours (+2.9%)

Total Channels: 27,465 Creators (-3.01%)

Top Creators by Viewership

1. Lord Kebun - 762,918 Hours

2. dasMEHDI - 452,796 Hours

3. Vader - 298,374 Hours

4. RebirthzTV - 242,674 Hours

5. Kyle - 219,792 Hours

Check out last week's numbers to see how things have changed. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for all the latest blogs, announcements, and game marketing news from the team at GAMESIGHT!