Morefun Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent Games, is gearing up to release Arena Breakout: Infinite, a successor to their successful mobile game. The title began a closed beta release on May 8, and quickly skyrocketed to the top of Twitch’s viewership charts. As a realistic first-person-shooter, the game has been compared heavily to Escape from Tarkov, and many streamers are curious to check out what the hype is about.
Arena Breakout: Infinite released roughly a year ago for iOS and Android, advertised as a next-generation realistic tactical shooter. The move to a PC release has brought the game to the next level, and it boasts beautifully hyper-realistic graphics. The core gameplay is roughly similar to Escape from Tarkov, with players entering a zone to search for loot, and either avoid or engage other players. The weapon modification system is also a popular selling point for the game, with over 500 attachments spread across 30 gun slots for players to experiment with.
The closed beta has been remarkably successful; many top streamers were brought into the beta, and plenty of them are well-known for their love of Escape from Tarkov. The developers have also been using Twitch Drops to spread keys to the beta, driving viewership even higher as viewers are not only watching their favourite streamers dip their toes into something new, but can unlock a beta key for themselves after an hour of watch time.
Arena Breakout: Infinite Closed Beta Viewership
Since the closed beta’s release on May 8, the game has been rapidly generating viewership. As of May 13, it has already amassed 6.94M Hours Watched, and become the 8th most-watched game on Twitch since release.
Top 10 most-watched games on Twitch, May 8 - 13
For reference, the title is outperforming Street Fighter 6, which is currently undergoing a significant boom in viewership thanks to the Crazy Raccoon Cup #4. The event is hosted by one of Japan’s most beloved gaming organizations, and features many of the country’s most popular streamers, who are also broadcasting their side of the event. Street Fighter 6 has enjoyed a 106% increase to its viewership for this period but still fell behind the new FPS.
The game has enjoyed some viewership on other live streaming platforms, such as YouTube Live and Kick, but Twitch has received the vast majority of the attention for the beta. This was partially caused by the integration of Twitch Drops into the beta’s key release system, which has encouraged fans to tune into streams on the purple platform.
Since the beginning of the closed beta, the title has generated just under 7 million hours of watch time. The high viewership for the title will likely continue throughout the Twitch Drops integration, which will end on May 22.
The game has also enjoyed 53.7K Average Viewers, remarkably high for the amount of channels broadcasting the game on Twitch. For comparison, it received only 8.5K fewer AV than Fortnite, despite the battle royale enjoying a Average Channels figure 1625% higher than the Morefun Studios title throughout the selected period. The game has received 222 Viewers per Channel so far, making it extremely attractive for all streamers with a key to stream the game and ride the hype wave.
It also reached 137K Peak Viewers, a remarkable feat for a game that has only recorded 618 Peak Channels on Twitch so far. Typical for new releases with significant excitement behind them, this first week or two of viewership is crucial for Twitch streamers to generate the highest viewership possible with the support of the title.
Shrewdly, the game’s developers have seemed to target Escape from Tarkov streamers as recipients of beta keys to advertise the upcoming full release. All the top streamers to broadcast Arena Breakout: Infinite so far previously broadcasted Escape from Tarkov on Twitch.
Most popular streamers to broadcast Arena Breakout: Infinite
So far, LVNDMARK has led the way as the most popular Twitch streamer to cover Arena Breakout: Infinite so far. The North American creator is one of Escape from Tarkov’s most popular creators, having built a name for himself as both an entertainer and one of the game’s most competitive players. Throughout 2024 alone, he has streamed over 689 hours of Escape from Tarkov. His audience is a dream demographic for Arena Breakout: Infinite developers, who are trying to break into the genre Escape from Tarkov has previously dominated. So far, he has received over 765.8K Hours Watched, and reached a peak viewership of 47.8K peak concurrent viewers. The week of May 6 - 12 was his most-watched week on Twitch since January 7 of this year.
Following closely behind LVNDMARK in both rankings, America’s favourite FPS player shroud enjoyed sizable success streaming the game. He reached 31.5K Peak Viewers for a Twitch Drops enabled broadcast of the game on May 10, making the game his most popular content in months. Looking at the stream dynamics of this peak viewership broadcast, shroud changed his title on Twitch to include “Drops” roughly half way through the stream, and his viewership almost immediately doubled. The power of Twitch Drops is nowhere more clearer than here.
Recrent, past esports professional turned streamer, also enjoyed a significant boost to his viewership. As a previous Call of Duty and PUBG Battlegrounds professional esports player, many Russian-speaking viewers have been tuning into his broadcast, both for his crisp aim and the Twitch Drops. As of May 13, the month of May has recorded his highest average viewership of 2024 so far.
HutchMF, another well-known Escape from Tarkov streamer, has been fervently streaming the title since release. However, no one could match the dedication of Brazilian streamer BURGAOfps. The Brazilian has broadcasted Escape from Tarkov for over 944 hours in 2024 alone, but recently he hosted three back-to-back 24 hour broadcasts of Arena Breakout: Infinite. He has collected 192.9K Hours Watched so far, and on May 10, he reached 7K Peak Viewers: a personal record for his Twitch channel.
Other popular creators, such as Papaplatte and LIRIK, also broadcasted the new beta, but rather briefly compared to others in these rankings. LIRIK’s most-broadcasted game of 2024 is Escape from Tarkov, but he has also covered Arena Breakout: Infinite for 11 hours since May 8. If he had dedicated more time to the title, he would surely be topping the watch-time rankings for the game. Papaplatte on the other hand has generated far higher viewership hosting special IRL streams rather than gaming broadcasts.
Viewership comparison of Arena Breakout: Infinite and Escape from Tarkov, May 8 - 13
Comparing the viewership of Arena Breakout: Infinite to Escape from Tarkov on Twitch directly these past days, the former has enjoyed far more viewership thanks to the excitement generated around its closed beta. Of course, this extremely high viewership will likely not last, but as it stands, Arena Breakout: Infinite has generated considerably more attention from viewers than Escape from Tarkov, despite the forerunning game sporting a significantly higher Average Channels metric.
The most notable discrepancy between the statistics of the two games is found in the Viewers per Channel metric. Keeping in mind this is only the closed beta of the game, the official full release will likely see many more streamers flock to broadcast the shooter. The viewership for the official release will likely depend on Twitch Drops integration: if the developers can effectively use this system once more, the viewership for the game might reach even higher peaks.
Excluding the rare outlier like Papaplatte, all streamers involved with Arena Breakout: Infinite’s closed beta have enjoyed a significant boost to their viewership. The combination of hype behind a new release as well as Twitch Drops integration is a killer-combo for any category on Twitch, and many streamers are raking in the rewards already. For the game to become a true competitor to Escape from Tarkov, it must maintain sizable viewership even after the Twitch Drops campaign. Use the Streams Charts database and relevant game page to check in on Arena Breakout: Infinite, it might just become a title rivalling Escape from Tarkov in its own genre.
