In 2023, the release of Honkai: Star Rail sparked great excitement among gamers around the world: the community eagerly awaited the new game from HoYoverse studio, which had previously released the highly popular Genshin Impact. The release of Honkai: Star Rail was warmly welcomed on Twitch; the game category on the day of its release, April 26, reached 274.5K Peak Viewers.
Since the release of Honkai: Star Rail, there have been several spikes in activity in the game category on Twitch. They occurred during the release of major patches. HoYoverse studio conducted a live presentation of these patches on their official channels. Additionally, the developers raffled drops to attract viewers' attention to the game.
On September 13, HoYoverse launched a new major campaign with drops for Honkai: Star Rail, and it differed from how Twitch Drops usually work. The developers changed the rules for obtaining drops: rewards were given not only for watching other people's streams but also for hosting their own streams (if you have at least one viewer). In September, this led to a sharp increase in the number of Honkai: Star Rail streamers on Twitch: the peak number exceeded 20K unique channels. The game HoYoverse surpassed Fortnite, Valorant, Starfield, GTA V, Just Chatting, and other categories by this metric. In 2023, only Hogwarts Legacy and Diablo IV saw more peak concurrent channels on release days.
Most popular categories on Twitch by Peak Channels — September 2023
However, the increase in the number of channels and streamers did not significantly help Honkai: Star Rail expand its audience reach on Twitch. In September, the Average Viewers number of the category was around 14.6K people (38th place in the platform's categories ranking), and the Peak Viewers number reached 82.4K people (41st place). In other words, Honkai: Star Rail had twice as many Peak Channels as Starfield, but Starfield had five times more Peak Viewers. Most of the new channels for Honkai: Star Rail on Twitch broadcast to receive in-game rewards. Typically, these channels would stop streaming immediately after reaching the required number of broadcast minutes.
Abnormal growth in the number of channels in the Honkai: Star Rail category on Twitch
HoYoverse hosted a special broadcast on September 29 to discuss Honkai: Star Rail 1.4's upcoming release. The “Jolted Awake From a Winter Dream” update, which introduces players to new characters, quests, and events, took the developers slightly over an hour to discuss. It will be made available on October 11. By the way, Honkai: Star Rail will also become available for PlayStation 5.
The Honkai: Star Rail developers discussed the impending banners and heroes that would appear there at the official release of version 1.4. For instance, in the fall, gamers will have access to 4-star Sampo, Tingyun, Qingque, Guinaifen, Luka, and Sushang, as well as 5-star Jingliu and Topaz. In addition, for the first time since version 1.0, Seele's character banner will be back. From November 1 through November 21, Version 1.4's Phase 2 will feature the banner.
The "Clouds Leave No Trace" quest, which will unveil the history of Jingliu, was also mentioned by the creators in addition to new characters. Trailblazer will be able to reach new areas through side missions with other characters.
Version 1.4 Special Program Viewership Statistics
The presentation of update 1.4 lasted just over an hour. It accumulated 224.6K Watched Hours, 207.3K Average Viewers, and nearly 288.2K Peak Viewers throughout this period of time. The official YouTube broadcasts from the creators attracted the largest audience, but well-known streamers also followed the introduction of the "Jolted Awake From a Winter Dream" update. For instance, the presentation was live on the individual Twitch channels of Tectone and zackrawrr. In total, 1.4 update was broadcast in 22 different languages and on more than 400 different channels.
The introduction of update 1.4 drew fewer viewers than prior presentations, according to data from the official game channels. For instance, 96.5K Peak Viewers tuned in to see the patch 1.2 presentation on the Honkai: Star Rail (YouTube) channel in July. In August, 89.3K Peak Viewers tuned in to watch the patch 1.3 presentation. This number decreased to 78.2K Peak Viewers during the update 1.4 presentation. Similar dynamics can be observed on the HonkaiStarRail channel on Twitch, but the total audience number is smaller — presentation 1.4 attracted 14.5K Peak Viewers.
Most popular broadcasts on official Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact channels
Since both games were created by the same studio and share a lot of decorative similarities, it is interesting to compare the statistics of the official channels for Genshin Impact with those of Honkai: Star Rail. In comparison, Genshin Impact's official patch and update presentations draw between 140K and 380K Peak Viewers. This means that data from a single Genshin Impact channel frequently outweighs the total metrics of all Honkai: Star Rail channels, including even community casters. This says a lot about the popularity of these games.
