The open beta test of Diablo IV, a new installment of the iconic game franchise by Blizzard Entertainment, ended on March 27. The game attracted not only fans of the series, but also many of the top streamers, who ran broadcasts of the game as soon as they got access to it. Streams Charts has calculated how many viewers watched the game's broadcasts on Twitch.
The Diablo IV beta test was held in two stages: those who made the pre-order got access to the game from March 17 to 20. Among these people were a lot of streamers, who bought the game to create content. From March 24 to 27, the developers held a separate stage of the open beta test, and anyone could take part in it.
Diablo IV Beta Tests Viewership Statistics
Comparison of the two Diablo IV beta test stages
It was the first stage of the test that saw the most activity from the top streamers. On March 17-20, the Diablo IV category on Twitch accumulated 18.2 million Hours Watched, placing the game in second place among all the categories on the platform, second only to Just Chatting. These days the category's Peak Viewers number reached 942.3K viewers, and the Peak Channels number was just over 9.8K.
The open beta test of Diablo IV started on March 24 for everyone, but getting access to the game was not an easy task. Blizzard had previously warned that due to the large influx of players there would be waiting lists on the servers. And it happened: in the early days to enter the game, you had to wait for more than an hour, and the process of logging in was accompanied by errors and crashing the client. During the second stage of the test, the game's category on Twitch accumulated 9.5 million Hours Watched and took seventh place in the Top of the platform. The Peak Viewers number of the category dropped to 364K viewers, and the Peak Channels number dropped to 8.6K.
This drop in metrics is quite explainable: top streamers produced a portion of content promptly during the first stage, and then switched to other games. On the other hand, the Average Channels number of the category increased in the second stage — smaller streamers, who did not want to pre-order the game, but still decided to stream it during the open test, joined in.
Most Popular Diablo IV Streamers
The main RPG fan on Twitch tops the ranking
Zackrawrr (Asmongold's second channel) became the most watched Diablo IV streamer. During the beta test, he spent more than 64 hours in the game, and his channel accumulated 1.94 million HW. The same streamer became the leader by Peak Viewers — his Diablo IV broadcast was watched by almost 90K PV.
The Top 10 Diablo IV streamers also includes Quin69, shroud, CohhCarnage, and other content creators. Gaules, Rubius and ZeratoR did not make it into this list, as they spent not so much time in the game, but their broadcasts of the beta test attracted tens of thousands of Peak Viewers.
Overall, we should note that the Diablo IV beta test certainly attracted the attention of both gaming and streamer communities. The start of the test can be compared to the launch of other popular titles. For example, Diablo IV Average Viewers number on the first day of the test was 192K. In comparison, Hogwarts Legacy had 527.9K PV, and Elden Ring had 654.6K PV. However, it is important to note here that the start of the beta test is compared to the full release. Let's see what numbers Diablo IV will show at the release, which is scheduled for June 6, 2023.
