Bonus: Sea of Thieves and Escape from Tarkov
What kind of games are these? Sea of Thieves is a cooperative pirate game where you steer a ship with friends or alone, seek treasures, and complete tasks. Other pirates can always try to steal your loot. The game was released in March 2018.
Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore shooter where you must invade an abandoned city and gather loot. Dangers like hostile players or NPCs wanting to kill you are everywhere. The goal is to escape alive with the gear collected. The shooter entered alpha at the end of 2016 and has been in beta since 2017.
How did they benefit from Twitch? Both games ran under the radar for a long time and received little attention from players. Sea of Thieves had a rough start with much criticism, while Escape from Tarkov was simply too hardcore for many. But after their releases, both games received a significant boost from Twitch.
In Sea of Thieves, streamer Summit1g created an upswing when he single-handedly brought the game to the top in January 2019. This was shortly after the first expansion. Summit1g then influenced further top streamers like DrDisrespect and Ninja, who also showcased Sea of Thieves.
Escape from Tarkov received its boost from Australia. The streamer Pestily became overnight number 1 on Twitch in early 2020. The reason for this was Twitch Drops, rewards that players could earn by watching. For Pestily, this meant a nearly 20-fold increase in viewership. This example shows how powerful such drops can strengthen a game.
However, both Escape from Tarkov and Sea of Thieves couldn’t significantly maintain their short hype on Twitch. While there were other days where they attracted many viewers, it was not consistent. The impact on player numbers is also difficult to assess. Escape from Tarkov relies on its own launcher, while Sea of Thieves only came to Steam after Summit1g’s action and could not be measured before.
Twitch – The Best Advertising for Games?
All these examples clearly demonstrate that Twitch has become an important tool for marketing games. It’s no surprise that publishers are now relying on streaming to promote their products.
This way, they directly reach their target audience and hardly anyone else. Over 50% of MeinMMO readers stated in a survey that they watch Twitch daily. Only a few of you don’t watch any streams at all.
However, Twitch is no longer just a platform for video games but for all sorts of things people like to show and watch. One of these is less pleasant: gambling. A report from ZDF in October 2020 highlighted that gambling on Twitch is a serious problem and some streamers exploit others’ addictions.
