The survival game ARK: Survival Evolved was practically dead on Twitch in 2023, but now it is suddenly the game with the most viewers.
What is the current status of ARK? ARK: Survival Evolved is one of the 5 most popular survival games on Steam and has been a constant in the genre for years. Even though the aging game has some issues and a persistent controversy regarding the upcoming ARK remaster, the game has a loyal community.
Even when the official ARK servers were shut down at the end of September, player numbers did not collapse. The survival game remains stable on Steam and still has an average of 36,000 players (via Steamcharts).
ARK takes the number 1 spot on Twitch
What were the viewer numbers for ARK in 2023? In contrast to the solid figures on Steam, the viewer numbers on Twitch recently lagged behind. ARK: Survival Evolved was practically dead on the streaming platform: on average, the game only had around 2,000 viewers in 2023.
That changed abruptly in October.
What are the current viewer numbers on Twitch? ARK is currently exploding on Twitch and even managed to become the game with the most viewers on Twitch at one point (see screenshot).
On Saturday afternoon, over 115,000 viewers tuned in (as of: October 7, 1:30 PM). The survival game was thus ahead of games like League of Legends, GTA V, Counter-Strike, and the currently ongoing CoD MW3 beta.
Overall, things are going really well for ARK on Twitch right now. In the past 3 days, the survival game averaged 93,692 viewers, which corresponds to an approximate increase of 4,500% (via Sullygnome).
Streamer event causes viewer surge
Why are so many people suddenly watching ARK? In Japan, there is currently a streaming event called “VCR ARK” organized by the gaming community “Vaultroom” and the e-sports team “Crazy Racoon”.
A variety of Japanese streamers and V-Tubers are participating in the streaming event, including some of the country’s most popular content creators. Just the streamer “fps_shaka” regularly has over 40,000 viewers on Twitch and boosts the survival game up the streaming platform charts.
According to the streamer fps_shaka, the event is primarily about cooperative gameplay. The streamers live together on an ARK server in a city, have to adhere to specific rules, and rely on collaboration to complete certain tasks.
We know similar streaming events mainly from ARK competitors like Rust, where the game is regularly propelled to the top of Twitch by numerous large players:
