The 2023 Game of The Year Competition Intensifies
The competition for the 2023 Game of the Year is quickly intensifying. Starfield, despite its substantial success, has been trumped by Hogwarts Legacy and Baldur’s Gate in one core area that gamers might overlook.
The Gaming Landscape in 2023
This year has been an exciting one for the gaming community. Many impressive games have been released, including 'The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom', ' Diablo 4', and 'Baldur’s Gate', with more still on the horizon.
Twitch Viewership: An Overlooked Measure of Hype
Despite the Game of the Year not being decided yet, 'Diablo 4', 'Hogwarts Legacy' and 'Baldur’s Gate' have surprisingly outperformed Starfield in an area that's often overlooked when measuring hype: Twitch viewership.
Streaming Numbers Show a Shift
When Starfield debut, many top-tier Twitch streamers started broadcasting their gameplay. Nonetheless, the new RPG by Bethesda couldn't outpace the viewership numbers of four other Game of the Year contenders. Data from Streams Charts show that on the first day, 'Diablo 4' and 'Hogwarts Legacy' had 12.7M and 12.4M hours of watch time, respectively.
'Baldur’s Gate' followed with relatively lower numbers at 3.7M hours. Lastly, 'Star Wars Jedi Survivor' had 2.6M hours of viewership. Meanwhile, Starfield picked 2.4M hours on Twitch, which is still double the debut number of 'Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom'.
The significance of Twitch Viewership
While viewership isn't a determining factor for winning awards in gaming, it's still an insightful metric for measuring players' reactions to new games. Therefore, it's quite significant that 'Hogwarts Legacy' and 'Baldur’s Gate' have managed to come ahead of Starfield in this regard.