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Borderlands 3 lost over 80% viewers on Twitch week after launch
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
Doesn't this happen with every game? Not that I give a shit about another Borderlands game, but still, I think this is normal. Besides why would you ever watch someone play a loot shooter. That's an even bigger waste of time than playing loot shooters.
Makes sense to me. No one wants to watch someone play Borderlands. It's not viewer friendly especially with it's HORRIBLE sense of humor.
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No, they can show some trends but in general they are not barometer for success.
Have you even played it?
Related to thread, Minecraft has 98K viewers right now where half of it made up by 2(!) streamers, people would think Minecraft is having some sort of renaissance by these numbers (and I guess it kinda is) but once these two are playing other games it's down to half and the charts will look awful.
Agree. I think a large part of it is the amount of time wasted running around Sanctuary. Every time I tuned into a stream, most of the time I watched they were wandering around or trying to find something in Sanctuary rather than actually doing something.
Presumably the guns are more fun to shoot than to watch someone shoot, unlike other FPS games.
Twitch is not that important for a vast majority of the game industry in terms of long-term engagement.
Have you even played it?
Related to thread, Minecraft has 98K viewers right now where half of it made up by 2(!) streamers, people would think Minecraft is having some sort of renaissance by these numbers (and I guess it kinda is) but once these two are playing other games it's down to half and the charts will look awful.
Played the first two games and got bored to tears and never finished them. Repetitive.
Watched some streams for BL3 and it's basically the same game as all the previous ones.
Not surprising. This isn't the type of game to thrive on twitch past the initial launch period. It's really boring to watch
Twitch might be the single most important marketing tool within the gaming industry right now.
There's no endgame. Streamers beat the game twice, hit the level cap, and that's it.
Also, yeah, Modern Warfare beta.
Also, yeah, Modern Warfare beta.
You play the game. You beat the game. You move on. What is the insensitive for streamers to keep playing and for viewers to keep watching? BL3 doesn't have competitive multiplayer which changes things up each time nor does it have significant weekly goals to make gamers come back each week.
I remember I used to watch Twitch every single day. Heck i even started streaming too. But all the sudden i grew out of it. I don't even bother to watch anybody play the Modern Warfare Beta.. only Shroud for just 10 mins or less. Just said "I rather play this myself then watch someone playing".
I don't think i'll ever get old for gaming but i'm surprised that i'm over streaming/Twitch very fast.
I don't think i'll ever get old for gaming but i'm surprised that i'm over streaming/Twitch very fast.
In terms of long term engagement though for a non competitive-based multiplayer game? Not talking about short term mind you. IDK, id be shocked if this actually meant anything in the context of this game. Borderlands 3 will probably continue to have great legs even with bad Twitch drops.
Most games are heavily frontloaded when it comes to sales. So having a strong start is often the most important thing. From my perspective Influencers are the most effective tool right now to get some kind of visibility, awareness and good word of mouth starting for your game. Influencers get cash (via their agency or the bountyboard) and the game gets views. Once those bounties stop (like BL3 atm) those streamers will unfortunately also stop pretty soon with streaming your game and switch to the next paid one.
Would you count something like Sea of Thieves as non-competitive multiplayer based?
Well, I'll agree with you that it is repetitive but not boring, but that's how most games are these days if you start to boil them down. Gunplay is vast upgrade from previous installments, I couldn't finish 2 and Pre-Sequel and I'm having lots of fun with 3.
It's one of those games that's best enjoyed with a good group of friends, but yeah, opinions.
Sekiro feels odd to compare as the interest over watching a favored streamer commit, fail, and eventually succeed over unknown and difficult challenges in the journey is understandable as a hook.
Don't think Blands 3 really offers the same sort of tension or drama in its progression? Watch day 1 for cheeky jokes and to see how the game impresses it jives, then what? Just don't see the hook.
Alot of its big streamers (like KingGothalion) have finished up the initial grind and have moved on to COD beta and Zelda which dropped today. So that eats into a lot of its lunch.
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Blands has coop and that can cause some funny and unexpected moments in game like Blands. Especially if group that is streaming it in right mood.
Yeah I don't think this is unusual. Frankly I'm surprised at how high it was up there and to see streamers like Cohh playing it with 15k+ viewers.
In response to some of your other posts - In Sekiro's case streamers got access further in advance I believe, but more importantly it's a From title. In general the Souls community and series of games have a consistent viewership because of how revered, replayable, and speedrun friendly they are. Borderlands really doesn't. Also I think Sekiro and Souls are way more entertaining to watch for most people.
You mentioned the endgame but I don't think it's much more prominent than their previous titles, and it doesn't compare with Borderlands 2 content and endgame post DLC.
There was never any indication of the streaming features bringing any kind of significant retention, especially because they are criticized as being fairly intrusive to the viewing experience.
In response to some of your other posts - In Sekiro's case streamers got access further in advance I believe, but more importantly it's a From title. In general the Souls community and series of games have a consistent viewership because of how revered, replayable, and speedrun friendly they are. Borderlands really doesn't. Also I think Sekiro and Souls are way more entertaining to watch for most people.
You mentioned the endgame but I don't think it's much more prominent than their previous titles, and it doesn't compare with Borderlands 2 content and endgame post DLC.
To be fair you're kinda arguing against something I didn't say. I didn't say Twitch wasn't important for marketing games pre-launch or during launch week. Just that it doesn't seem to be predictive of the legs or sustained popularity of games over a long period of the time, for the majority of the industry, which seems to be true. It isn't true for a very big and profitable portion of the industry however, like say Apex or Fortnite, but it doesnt seem to be the majority. Just a very huge profitable section of it.
There will always be exceptions to Twitch mostly affecting the long term success of multiplayer competitive based GaaS titles. Sea of Thieves is one of them, but even that game is very much a GaaS title. Is Borderlands 3? I don't think so but admit im not a fan. I know those games get DLC but I don't think it was ever going to be as sustainably interesting to watch long term as SoT.
Like some, I'm staying far away from anything spoilerish so I'm not surprised. Could be, some peeps saw the game and liked it so they went ahead and bought it and are playing it.
It's nothing about that. It would be highlighted if it kept a large audience on twitch but it didn't which is highlighted anyway.
