In January 2019, it looked like Sea of Thieves would be the next big game on Twitch. But then something unexpected happened: Apex Legends came along. It is now the official “Fortnite alternative” of the stars on Twitch.
This is what it looked like just a month ago: In January 2019, it seemed that Sea of Thieves was making an incredible comeback.
The shooter player Summit1g suddenly found success with his streams of “Sea of Thieves”, entertaining his viewers with a “brand new” game, standing out among the crowd of Fortnite streamers, and achieving great success – financially as well.
The escapades of Summit1g in Sea of Thieves captivated the viewers and earned him a lot of subscriptions. It was a bit of a sensation that a streamer suddenly found success by playing a game that was neither “hip” nor “trendy”.
Led by the top pirate Summit1g, many well-known shooter streamers suddenly tried out the pirate MMO.
The adventure Sea of Thieves suddenly seemed entertaining and cool when DrDisrespect took the helm. Even well-known figures from Fortnite like TimTheTatman or Ninja suddenly became pirates.
As the US site Kotaku notes, Sea of Thieves suddenly had over 100,000 concurrent viewers and ranked third among Twitch games behind Fortnite and League of Legends.
This is what it looks like now: But currently, the numbers for Sea of Thieves on Twitch have dropped – they range between 2,000 and 15,000 viewers.
Apparently, the hype is already over.
What is the reason? The decline of Sea of Thieves coincides with the rapid rise of Apex Legends on Twitch. Many of the streamers who had tried “Sea of Thieves” for a change are now playing Apex Legends:
- While in January, Summit1g was seen as a trendsetter and top winner with Sea of Thieves
- Now in February, the rise of Shroud with Apex Legends is well-documented
Young streamers who want to make it big, like the “wonder child” Dizzy, are seeing shiny growth in their channels with Apex Legends. Summit1g is now only at 23rd place in the statistics for most new followers.
That makes it remarkable: What’s interesting is that Sea of Thieves and Apex Legends are completely different games with hardly anything in common.
But the rise of Sea of Thieves was not only about the game itself, but also about the general craving of top streamers for something new and not just the eternal Fortnite.
But now Apex Legends seems to be the new hot thing on Twitch.
A sign of how quickly the winds can change and that a single top streamer can establish a trend that others then follow.
