World of Warcraft is more popular than ever, at least on Twitch. We explain here why this ancient MMORPG is suddenly dominating.
World of Warcraft is dying – that has been said for many years. However, the fact that WoW is still quite alive in 2023 can sometimes be particularly seen on Twitch. Often Blizzard’s MMORPG plays only a minor role here, but anyone who watched the streaming site in recent hours could even see WoW temporarily at number 1.
The new Patch 10.2 Guardian of Dreams also plays a role:
Why is WoW successful on Twitch? The reasons for WoW being temporarily the most popular game on Twitch yesterday with 230,000 viewers (50,000 ahead of the second place League of Legends) and currently still holding second place (as of: 16.11.2023, 11:30 AM) are manifold, as many factors are coming together (via gamesradar.).
- WoW announced the next three expansions at BlizzCon, effectively revealing a rough timeline for the next six years. This ensures that old fans take another look.
- WoW Classic Hardcore is still quite popular, and many take delight in watching streamers lose their beloved HC character to death. There are also many “Reaction” videos on compilations of the most beautiful (or silliest) permanent deaths in HC Classic. Some Classic deaths are simply too beautiful.
- There is a special Twitch drop, a white riding camel – therefore, all active WoW fans have to watch a few hours of WoW content on Twitch to secure this goodie.
Will it stay this way? Probably not. Actions like the Twitch drops rather lead to a temporary viewership that primarily wants to grab the reward. Although the race for the “World First Kill” is likely to drive the viewership numbers up again in the coming days, as soon as the first professionals reach Fyrakk, afterwards it will likely quickly level off again.
The other Twitch attractions, like the announcements of BlizzCon or the Twitch drop for a new mount, are also expected to decrease again in the coming days.
Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that Blizzard, with a game over 19 years old, still manages to capture attention.
It seems unlikely that World of Warcraft will become a long-term hit again – as is the case with League of Legends – but the short, drastic spikes upwards are certainly remarkable.
