#Top5OnTwitch January 3rd -10th
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 rankings, and our list of the top rising titles in 2019 here.
Graphs for Top Rising titles show previous two weeks for context.
Top Five Rising
1. Monster Hunter World
Increase Viewership: 2,399,018 Hours (338.60%)
Increase Channels: 10,200 Creators (141.94%)
One of the effects of timed platform exclusivity is that it means different populations of streamers get their hands on a title, in this case the Iceborne expansion to Monster Hunter World, at different times, with what would otherwise be a single influx of creators and viewers being replaced by a series of likely smaller, but still community-invigorating events. This past week, PC players were able to get their hands on the DLC, and the more than 10,000 new partiicpating streamers was the second-largest such increase on all of Twitch, after League of Legends. It’s first-day peak of 1084 concurrent broadcasts actually outpaced September’s PS4 release by 62 creators.
That there are so many players who were still waiting to get their hands on this content bodes very well for Monster Hunter’s near future. The PS4 version of Iceborne has helped to keep the base game just inside the top 50 most viewed titles on Twitch since it’s release, and if there are a comparable number of PC players who have been waiting for the PC release to jump back in, it could keep the title active in the world of streaming well into the second quarter of 2020. A successful launch, and an object lesson in the benefits of staggered releases across different platforms.
2. FIFA 20
Increase Viewership: 4,846,415 Hours (127.24%)
Increase Channels: 4355 Creators (19.85%)
The FIFA 20 ‘Team of the Year’ was released this week, and with it came a large influx of viewership and the fifth largest overall increase in participating streamers across all of Twitch. This event, which is actually a limited-time release of a new suite of player and upgrade cards boasting enhanced stats, was eagerly anticipated this year, with the community participating in the selection of the team’s players, based on their real-life achievements on the pitch in 2019, via a fan vote, and of course players were anxious to get their hands on these new cards as they build their own teams in the game’s popular ‘Ultimate Team’ mode. The results above speak for themselves.
The biggest beneficiary of this extra attention was creator Castro_1021, whose more than 2.3 million hours of total viewership outpaced the next most popular creator by more than 80%. And yet, the large increase in streamers also indicates that the rising tide has risen all ships, so to speak, with viewership trending upward for most dedicated FIFA creators. When it comes to Twitch, FIFA remains the undisputed king of sports games, and it’s because of events like this, which really draw into focus how integral the ‘Ultimate Team’ mode has come to the title’s ongoing success.
3. Dungeons And Dragons (Tabletop)
Increase Viewership: 315,337 Hours (417.89%)
Increase Channels: 584 Creators (41.36%)
Critical Role, the role-playing podcast broadcast live on Twitch featuring voice actors playing an ongoing campaign of Dungeons and Dragons, returned from their holiday hiatus this week, and with it returned its sizable audience, with its January 9th stream accruing just over 200,000 hours of viewership. Interestingly, though, it also experienced substantial growth in terms of participating channels, with its nearly 600 new broadcasters being the 20th largest such increase on the platform. This latter trend predates the aforementioned stream, with daily peak broadcasts increasing from a typical 103 channels on January 2nd to nearly 160 the following day, and it has not substantively decreased since. The holiday’s are likely the cause, with averages having fallen on December 21st, and returning after the new year. Dungeons and Dragons is a collarborative game, so it’s no surprise that time spent with family is time spent away from the game.
The success of Critical Role, however, alongisde what remains an impressive increase in creator participation, prompts some interesting questions. Tabletop RPGs have long been a small but stable niche on Twitch, but does the size of this one channel reveal an as-of-yet untapped market for D&D and other games in the genre? How is the increasing quality of streams and their associated technologies made the landscape more tenebale for tabletop games, and how can publishers and designers like Wizards of the Coast continue to provide the resources streamers need to turn these systems into the best online content possible? It’s prominance this week may be fleeting, but these questions will linger as we move forward into the new year.
4. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team
Increase Viewership: 23,464 Hours (2168.04%)
Increase Channels: 1072 Creators (487.27%)
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company captivated their fanbase this week as they revealed multiple new projects via a 20 minute ‘Nintendo Direct’ stream. The biggest announcement was the unveling of the two upcoming expansions, a first for the series, that are coming to Sword and Shield this year, but we also got our first look at a remake of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue/Red Rescue Team, first released on the Nintendo DS in 2005.A spin off of the main series, the Mystery Dungeon games feature turn-based exploration and combat within randomly generated dungeons. After the announcement, the original title exploded up the Twitch charts, with fans excited to explore the classic again in anticipation. For those who haven’t played the original, watching others tackle it on Twitch can inform their purchase decision when the new title is released. Others are simply so excited they can’t wait. The results above are obvious.
Like the Link’s Awakening remake before it, this new update is completely rebuilt from the ground up, with current-generation 3D graphics and animations, and will likely feature other improvements, alongside the potential addition of current generation Pokemon. Nintendo has clearly found something with these remakes, and bringing the routine over to Pokemon just makes sense. You could even argue that Pokemon: Let’s Go, a child-friendly reimagining of the first games in the series, was the first such title on the Switch. The original Mystery Team rising back up the Twitch charts is an early sign that the remake will do well when it hits stores in March.
5. Z1 Battle Royale
Increase Viewership: 54,721 Hours (303.64%)
Increase Channels: 332 Creators (87.83%)
With many creators still taking time away for the holidays, steaming was still down across the board this past week, which meant an opportunity for other smaller communities to make their presence felt on the Twitch charts. Z1 takes the final spot in this week’s rankings thanks to the return of several mid-sized creators, who wouldn’t have such an outsized impact for larger titles, but due to the timing, and their positions in the Z1 community, they were enough to deliver one of the larger relative increases in total viewership of any returning title on Twitch. The original H1Z1 was a pioneer title in the battle-royale genre, one that has since exploded and become perhaps the largest in the space. It has never managed to reach the heights of its ancestors, but it’s still capable of gathering a sizable audience, and this week it was enough to take a spot in our rankings.
Top Five Most Viewed Overall
1. League Of Legends
Total Viewership: 19,350,831 Hours (20.47%)
Total Channels: 111,652 Creators
Top Creators by Total Viewership
1. Solary - 708,385 Hours
2. loltyler1 - 566,177 Hours
3. NoWay4u_Sir - 469,430 Hours
4. Yassuo - 377,178Hours
5. C9Sneaky - 315,595 Hours
2. Escape from Tarkov
Total Viewership:18,316,713 Hours (-21.24%)
Total Channels: 26,654 Creators
Top Creators by Total Viewership
1. Pestily - 3,142,713 Hours
2. DrLupo - 1,181,429 Hours
3. Summit1g - 976,817 Hours
4. Veritas - 768,174 Hours
5. C9Sneaky - 315,595 Hours
3. Fortnite
Total Viewership: 11,445,674 Hours (-6.92%)
Total Channels: 270,445 Creators
Top Creators by Total Viewership
1.Tfue - 716,176 Hours
2. Bugha- 407,473 Hours
3. NICKMERKS - 396,396 Hours
4. Myth - 353,933 Hours
5. dakotaz - 344,580 Hours
4. Grand Theft Auto V/Online
Total Viewership: 9,903,677 Hours (+11.77%)
Total Channels: 48,279 Creators
Top Creators by Total Viewership
1. Lord_Kebun - 627,740 Hours
2. dasMEHDI - 508,652 Hours
3. Vader - 294,381 Hours
4. Shlorox - 259,860 Hours
5. RatedEpicz - 253,533 Hours
5. FIFA 20
Total Viewership: 8,655,049 Hours (+127.24%)
Total Channels: 26,297 Creators
Top Creators by Total Viewership
1. Castro_1021 - 2,321,851 Hours
2. ZanoXVII - 452,229 Hours
3. bateson87 - 331,175 Hours
4. Nick28T - 274,868 Hours
5. Adolfz - 270,725 Hours
Check out last week’s rankings, and our breakdown of 2019’s fastest growing games on Twitch. 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!