On April 16, Xbox held a world premiere broadcast for Metro 2039, the much-anticipated fourth mainline game in the series. While its viewership numbers might not compare favorably to other video gaming showcases held this year, the main story was the title itself, and what it has in store for longtime fans of the first-person shooter survival horror franchise.
What happened at the Xbox First Look: Metro 2039?
Developer 4A Games and Austrian publisher Deep Silver introduced fans to the upcoming title via its world premiere livestream. Like the previous games in the series, it will be a story-driven, single-player campaign, taking the series back to its roots in the Moscow Metro. The game is set in the same year mentioned in the title.
Players will put on the shoes of the series' new voiced protagonist — The Stranger — in its darkest chapter yet, returning to a post-apocalyptic Moscow metro that's been overrun by a fascist regime. Interestingly, the developer, a Ukrainian studio, was open about how its experience of the Russian invasion deeply shaped its perspective and fundamentally altered its game.
The broadcast also revealed that Metro 2039 is being built using 4A Games' own custom engine, meaning a shared technological lineage of over 15 years that promises to build upon everything developed for the preceding games. More details about the game will be disclosed over the coming months as we get closer to its scheduled release in the winter.
When will Metro 2039 be released?
Metro 2039 was announced for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store). A specific date has not been mentioned yet, but 4A Games did say that it will launch in the winter.
How many viewers watched the Xbox First Look: Metro 2039 presentation?
This video presentation was viewed by 156,000 live viewers at its peak, with all cumulative broadcasts totalling 84,725 Hours Watched (HW). A total of 223 channels covered some part of this stream, which lasted around 40 minutes and averaged a little over 127,000 concurrent viewers.
Some of the top content creators to cover the Xbox First Look: Metro 2039 were Saqib "LIRIK" Zahid, Ben "CohhCarnage" Cassell, Michael "shroud" Grzesiek and Sebastian "Forsen" Fors. The first three were also the most popular individual channels to co-stream this video presentation.
Among the three video gaming showcases held this year, the Xbox First Look: Metro 2039 was the most popular. A look at the overall picture for 2026 puts this broadcast in seventh among all gaming-related events.
Nevertheless, the interest generated for Metro 2039 ensured that it would be one of the most hyped releases this year. With that in mind, where it falls on the list of most popular video game launches in 2026 will be an intriguing watch, but the publisher and developer have done well to kick off proceedings in the best possible way.
Header image via Xbox Wire
