Escape From Tarkov had a New Year event from December 29 to January 7, where a big improvement of the balance was released, and the game's category on Twitch launched a giveaway (Twitch Drops) for watching the streams. Thanks to this, the game attracted a huge audience and set several records on the platform.
What are the particularities of the Escape From Tarkov updates?
Usually, the developers of Escape From Tarkov release two massive updates, one in the middle and another one at the end of the year, apart from numerous patches with minor bug fixes. During the big updates, user accounts and inventories are reset, new content is introduced, locations and lore are expanded, game mechanics are updated, etc. In fact, these massive updates almost "reboot" Escape From Tarkov, giving users the opportunity to start playing from scratch in a slightly improved version of the shooter.
Together with the winter updates, the developers also hold regular New Year's Eve events, where they organize quizzes, interviews with community members and show tournaments, and arrange the giveaway of drops on Twitch. During a certain period, viewers can get in-game cosmetic items for watching Escape From Tarkov broadcasts: weapons, rare equipment, etc. Items are distributed not only on special channels of the developers, but in general on any channel in the game's category on Twitch. As a result, the number of streamers and viewers in the Escape From Tarkov category on the platform increases several times.
How have the updates affected the growth of the game on Twitch?
The last New Year's Eve event and drops giveaway in Escape From Tarkov have dramatically increased the game's audience reach on Twitch. The number of Peak Channels increased by 430%, and the total number of Hours Watched of the category increased by 1,134%. The number of Average Viewers in the segment jumped from 23K to as many as 305K, and the Escape From Tarkov category on Twitch set a new record for Peak Viewers on January 7, drawing almost 570K PV. For comparison, the category's lowest PV in 2022 was in November, when it reached slightly more than 27K viewers.
Escape from Tarkov New Year’s Event Stats
The channels of streamers LVNDMARK and Pestily, with 7.6 million and 7.1 million Hours Watched, respectively, became the most popular during the event and drops giveaway. The first channel set a personal record for Peak Viewers (177.2K), and also became the top one by the Follower Gain in the category (+63.1K). The second one had the best Average and Peak Viewers totals during the event — 61.1K AV and 224.5K PV (but these results were not a record for Pestily's channel).
To keep an audience during drops giveaway, some streamers broadcast almost around the clock. For example, the German streamer xTerotex spent 277 hours on air in 12 days of the event — more than 23 hours per day. As for the well-known content creators who ran Escape From Tarkov streams during the event, we should mention shroud, fps_shaka, summit1g, LIRIK, DrLupo, stylishnoob4 and others.
Comparison with the last New Year's event
The New Year's Eve event for the 2022/2023 season has greatly increased the reach of the game on Twitch, but what did a similar event for the 2021/2022 season achieve? We found it impossible to directly compare the two events with each other, as the 2021/2022 release of the update and the drops giveaway were not at the same time.
The previous big winter update of the balance and new content was released on December 12. That's when the first jump in popularity happened in Escape From Tarkov on Twitch — the key metrics increased by more than 500%. For example, the AV number increased from 17K to 144K, and the PV number grew from 46K to nearly 300K.
Escape From Tarkov featured a New Year's Eve event from December 28 to January 9, 2022, with the drops giveaway, which resulted in a second jump in the game's popularity on the platform. In terms of percentages, the increase wasn't that big because the metrics were still quite high after the update. Nevertheless, the AV number rose to 276K, and the PV number increased to 476K viewers.
A clear comparison of the Hours Watched:
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The category's normal performance is 4.6 million Hours Watched (12 days prior to the Twitch Drops).
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The performance during Twitch Drops — 32 million Hours Watched (12 days in December 2021).
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New Year's Eve event — 86.2 million Hours Watched (12 days in January 2022).
In the 2022/2023 season, the release of the update and the launch of Twitch Drops actually overlapped, so it is difficult to determine what attracted viewers to the streams. Nevertheless, this coincidence helped key metrics surpass last year's numbers. For example, in the 11 days following the release of the update and the December 2022/January 2023 drops, the category racked up 87.6 million HW. The AV number was 304K viewers, and the PV number rose to 569K.
To sum up, at the 2021/2022 junction, the game section on Twitch enjoyed a noticeable boost that lasted for several weeks. At the 2022/2023 junction, that boost was a little stronger, but the effect will probably go away faster. It will be interesting to see what the game's category will show in February/March, when the excitement of the update and the New Year's Eve event has finally passed.
