Normally, World of Warcraft has had the most viewers on Twitch among MMORPGs. But that is changing right now. The beta of New World had more viewer hours than WoW in the last 7 days. Interest in Lost Ark is also high, although it hasn’t even launched in Europe and the USA yet.
This was the case for over 5 years:
- In the 67 months from January 2016 to July 2021, World of Warcraft was always the most-watched MMORPG on Twitch.
- Even during major content droughts, there was no MMORPG that was watched as often and reliably as Blizzard’s online role-playing game.
- In July 2021, the old order already began to waver: Final Fantasy XIV and New World closed in, but because WoW was still in a “World First” race, WoW held the top spot. In August 2021, this changed: Final Fantasy XIV was the largest MMORPG on Twitch for the first time. In September 2021, the trend continued.
New World offers a feature called “Proximity Chat” that aims to ensure success on Twitch:
New World has more viewers than WoW
These are currently the 4 largest MMORPGs on Twitch:
- Although New World was only visible for 5 days during the open beta from September 7 to 13, it ranks first among MMORPGs with 3.85 million hours.
- World of Warcraft takes second place among the MMORPGs with 3.38 million hours – that is 17% less than the week before.
- The MMORPG Lost Ark has 3.2 million hours – what’s special is that the MMORPG is practically only streamed by South Koreans.
- The MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 has 2.1 million hours – this shows a drop of 24%.
All these numbers are low compared to the overall top games on Twitch. The currently most successful game on Twitch, GTA Online, has nearly 10 times more viewers than WoW. Since they started role-playing in GTA, it has been extremely successful.
This is the most-watched Twitch clip of Lost Ark in the last week (Warning: Loud):
The Rule of WoW over the MMORPG Space on Twitch is Wobbling
This could continue: New World and Lost Ark are both not yet released in the West.
If New World has its release in a few weeks, the MMORPG could surpass WoW for the long term. New World is designed by Twitch owner Amazon specifically for streaming. It is expected that many big streamers will dive into New World. It has the potential to become a significant trend title at least in the short term.
If Lost Ark starts its beta in November and the action MMORPG is discovered by major US streamers, it could also shine and establish itself long-term on Twitch.
In any case, after years of stagnation, there is finally life in the MMORPG space in the West. We see that New World and Lost Ark are generating great interest, and not just within a relatively small “MMORPG target group” like previous online role-playing games, but beyond that.
It looks like we are finally getting real growth in the best MMORPGs in 2021:
