On April 3, the third season of Call of Duty: Warzone launched, bringing back the legendary map Verdansk. After five years, Warzone fans can once again fight in their favorite locations, which have been given a stunning makeover with even more detail. The season's release triggered a massive spike in the game's popularity on livestreaming platforms: peak viewership of Warzone category on Twitch, YouTube and Kick surged by 230-400%.
The return of Verdansk was a huge moment for Call of Duty: Warzone fans, as the beloved map now feels entirely refreshed: the iconic shooting mechanics from Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 are combined with smoother movement dynamics. Players can even swim now, though there are still only a few areas to do so. While the map didn't undergo major redesigns, it received a range of graphical upgrades: lush vegetation, realistic shadows, detailed building exteriors, dynamic lighting both indoors and outdoors, and much more.
The launch of Season 3 and Verdansk's return gave many streamers a great reason to get back to the game. As a result, the viewer stats for the Call of Duty: Warzone section on Twitch saw a massive increase. From March 31 to April 2, three days before the season's release, streams of the game on the purple platform generated a total of over 2.2 million hours of watch time. But from April 3 to 5, following the season's launch, that number soared to 7.4 million hours of watch time.
The peak concurrent viewership of the game jumped from 71,953 to 354,173 — the highest since November 2022, when Warzone 2.0 was released. The average number of viewers in the section tripled, and the average number of channels doubled. Call of Duty: Warzone also took the top spot on Twitch for the number of channels at its peak, surpassing even Fortnite.
The same surge is observed on YouTube: total watch time, along with the average and peak concurrent viewership, tripled. Warzone section on Kick experienced a comparable rise as well.
The most popular Warzone streamer after the launch of season 3 was Timothy ''TimTheTatman'' Betar — peak concurrent viewership on his YouTube channel soared to 43,998. Interestingly, TimTheTatman also made the top 10 with his Twitch channel, where he had 22,864 Peak Viewers on the first day of Verdansk's return.
The top 10 most popular Warzone channels also included Dmitrii ''Recrent'' Osintsev, Herschel ''DrDisRespect'' Beahm IV , and Nick ''NICKMERCS'' Kolcheff. With top shooter streamers giving the game their attention, Warzone viewer stats on streaming platforms saw a big spike. On Twitch, the added boost came from Twitch Drops — from April 3 to April 30 viewers can watch participating livestreams to earn a double XP token and a new Green Machine weapon blueprint for the XMG.
A few days after the launch of Season 3, it’s clear that Warzone’s viewership is slowly returning to its previous levels. For example, the average number of viewers in the game section on Twitch has already decreased from 120,000 to 83,000 viewers. Some popular streamers, such as Rani ''stableronaldo'' Netz and Félix ''xQc'' Lengyel, spent only a few hours in the new Warzone season before moving on to other games.
