The new PvPvE shooter Hunt: Showdown 1896 from the German studio Crytek unexpectedly broke into Twitch’s top 10 most-watched games. This surge was fueled by broadcasts from top streamers and a Twitch Drops campaign, which allows viewers to earn in-game items until August 23.
The original Hunt: Showdown was released in the summer of 2019 on PC, followed by a launch on major consoles a year later. Set in the late 19th century, the franchise's story revolves around treasure hunters who cleanse the swampy lands of Louisiana from various monsters in their quest for riches. Five years after its initial release, on August 15, 2024, the developers rebooted the project under the name Hunt: Showdown 1896. The new game features significantly improved graphics and gameplay mechanics, support for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, a new user interface, a new map, and more.
The release of Hunt: Showdown 1896 immediately caught the attention of Twitch users; on the day of its launch, streams of the game generated over 500,000 hours of watch time, placing the shooter at 23rd in the platform's rankings. The following day, the game doubled its average daily watch time and broke into the top 10 categories.
Many popular Twitch streamers hosted broadcasts of Hunt: Showdown 1896. The largest audience was gathered by the streamer Psychoghost, whose channel generated over 616,000 hours of watch time and peaked at 27,600 concurrent viewers. LIRIK also had strong reach, leading in average viewers per stream with over 17,000 concurrent viewers. Other content creators who streamed Hunt: Showdown 1896 include summit1g, Recrent, LVNDMARK, RachtaZ, and several other popular streamers on the platform.
The viewership stats for Hunt: Showdown 1896 on Twitch were significantly boosted by Twitch Drops, which are available daily from August 16 to 23. As rewards for watching streams, viewers can earn cosmetic items such as the Roe Stalker (Knife), Hera’s Gift (Charm), Moondial (Charm), Storied Past (Quad Derringer), Random Hunter, Supply Crates, and other in-game items.
When comparing Hunt: Showdown 1896 to other 2024 releases, the game generated 2-3 times fewer watch hours on its debut day than titles like Dragon's Dogma 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, or HellDivers II. However, by the fifth day post-release, the viewership dynamics and metrics of these games became nearly identical. In other words, Twitch viewers' interest in Hunt: Showdown 1896 remains more stable, whereas other titles tend to lose their audience much faster within the first week.
The stability of Hunt: Showdown 1896's metrics is largely due to broadcasts by several top streamers, with the game maintaining its position in the top rankings solely because of their activity. However, when comparing the number of channels streaming the game, Hunt: Showdown 1896 falls short, with 4 times fewer channels than the other mentioned titles.
