In Destiny, the live stream on Twitch shattered the record set by Destiny itself for a game reveal in 2015 just two weeks ago. However, it upset the fans.
Twitch is excited: 1.5 million views
On Wednesday, the live stream of Destiny for the new PVE activity “Prison of Elders” took place on Twitch and was a huge success, peaking at over 180,000 viewers. Just two weeks ago, it had set the record for “game reveal in 2015” with 137,000 peak viewers. Twitch does not reveal who holds second place, as the publisher who held the record until now never publicly disclosed the numbers.
Twitch is pleased about Destiny’s success and immediately turns it into a PR press release about how suitable Twitch is for showcasing such games and being close to the community. The three live streams of House of Wolves generated a total of 1.5 million views. The Forbes magazine takes these numbers from Twitch as a good “hype barometer” and sees Destiny’s popularity as extremely high.
Screaming and problem players
Fans did not respond well to the Wednesday stream. It lasted almost an hour and a half, which is twice as long as the previous two streams. The “community representative” Professor Broman faced a lot of criticism afterward for his overly enthusiastic and loud manner.
He, Community Manager DeeJ, and Senior Designer Matt Sammons also failed to achieve the self-imposed task of completing the 34-Level of “Prison of Elders.” The three were seen failing against the tough enemies multiple times. This led to some mockery and derision from Destiny fans. Community Manager DeeJ later stated that they received a “kick in the behind.”
The secret of Destiny’s stream
The extremely high viewer numbers also caught the attention of Destiny’s competitors. For example, H1Z1 designer Adam Clegg tweeted in surprise: “Did they somehow promote this? Or is it normal that 160,000 people are watching Destiny?”
Did destiny do any I’m game promoting of their streams or promoting in other places, or are they just naturally getting 160,000 viewers.
— Adam Clegg (@Arclegger) May 6, 2015
As every Destiny player could tell Clegg, the answer is obvious but is being silenced amid all the praise from Twitch or Forbes: While the live stream was running on Wednesday, the Destiny servers were down for maintenance. That’s a strategy that other companies could also copy.
