Baldur’s Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Diablo IV are just some of the games released in 2023 that completely took over the live-streaming sphere on release, and with Q3 behind us, let’s take a look at which game releases of the quarter were the most successful in drawing viewership.
In the past, we’ve covered these releases as they have come out and made some comparisons between the performance, however, with Streams Charts new updates to our game pages comparing the viewership for various game releases has never been easier. Keep reading until the end to experience how our new updates to the Games tab can let our users analyze whatever games they like.
Most-watched Q3 new releases on Twitch
Perhaps surprising for videogame enthusiasts who expected Baldur’s Gate 3 or Starfield to dominate live-streaming viewership, the most-watched Q3 release was actually EA Sports FC 24. Following the conclusion of EA’s partnership with FIFA, EA has released its new yearly football title under a new name, but this hasn’t affected its popularity.
In this graphic, users can see the watch time each game received, and also exactly when during Q3 the title was released. Peak Viewers statistics are also available for fans to compare the popularity of a game during the two-week release period.
EA Sports FC 24 was released in early access on the 22nd of September, and it received 4.7M hours of watch time on the first day. The game was hugely popular among streamers and recorded over 6K Twitch channels concurrently broadcasting it on the first day, and it was also covered by some of the biggest names in live streaming, such as ibai for example.
In second place was the brand-new role-playing game by Larian Studios, Baldur’s Gate 3. It was officially released on the 3rd of August and accumulated 34.9M Hours Watched during the first two weeks. The game was not as popular on Twitch as EA Sports FC, as it received 5.3K Peak Channels on the release day. However, viewership for the role-playing game was much more top-heavy, and creators CohhCarnage and sodapoppin both received more than 1M hours of watch time in the first week of release. Whereas EA Sports FC 24 was enjoyed by a more international audience, Baldur’s Gate 3 received the majority of its watch time from English-speaking broadcasters.
Taking up the final podium place of our Q3 rankings was Starfield, the highly anticipated new universe from Bethesda Studios. The anticipation for the new title was palpable, as it received 6.5M hours of watch time in a single day during its early access period. The anticipation for the new title coupled with the popularity of American streamer shroud was a winning formula, and the ex-professional Counter-Strike player received over 2.1M Hours Watched across the first week of release.
Starfield was the most popular Q3 release option for streamers, as it recorded over 10K Peak Channels twice during its release. Firstly, on the 1st of September during its early access, and then again on the 6th of September with its official release. Although such a wildly popular game, the early access for the title resulted in slightly lower viewership for its official release when compared to a title like Baldur’s Gate 3, which did not offer early access shortly before the official release.
Counter-Strike 2 was next on our rankings, but the title offered a much different release cycle than other games on this ranking. The new Counter-Strike title went through a long and lengthy beta period, and the official release of the game was slightly less successful due to this. The game also benefited from replacing CS:GO entirely, as it brought over all of the previous CS:GO casual streamers and even esports events’ viewership.
Following these four titles, we move down below the 20M Hours Watched mark and see some new titles released that received a little less excitement. Lies of P was a hugely successful game on Twitch, receiving coverage from channels like Fextralife, LIRIK, and Rubius. The game has been dubbed a “Souls-Like”, something important for the release of the title as fans of the Dark Souls series are always hungry for new games to challenge them and to overcome.
After this came The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a new release based on the eponymous movie. With the help of such a famous and recognisable name, the title received 16.39M Hours Watched during the first two weeks of release.
The first DLC of our list, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was a new update to the game coinciding with the longly awaited 2.0 update, which totally revamped the base game. Although it only received 11.7M Hours Watched during the first two weeks, the new updates have helped revitalise the game in live streaming and bring it back to the forefront of Twitch.
The final three games of our rankings, Party Animals, Payday 3, and Madden NFL 24 all received significant viewership in different ways. Party Animals, as you could expect from the name, is a great party option to have some casual fun with, and many famous live streamers covered it shortly on their channels as a new and fun way to collaborate with other streamers. Payday 3, the first installment in the franchise in roughly a decade, went into early access on the 18th of September and the hard-core fans of the franchise helped it to become one of the most successful releases of the quarter. Finally, Madden NFL 24, the second sports title on our list, received 3.4M Hours Watched during the two weeks of release, overwhelmingly supported by English-speaking and American broadcasters.
New Games page functions
At Streams Charts, we’re always innovating new ways for our users to analyse statistics themselves and make the most out of our databases. In this spirit, we’ve added some functions for our PRO users to enjoy on the release stats tab.
Using EA Sports FC 24 as an example, PRO users can now directly compare the viewership of a game release to any other game released in our database. Using this brand-new function, we can analyse the watch time dynamics of the first week of release for the most recent games in the EA Sports FC/FIFA franchise.
Click through the carousel to see how watch time evolved across the first week
With the help of this function, we can clearly see how EA Sports FC 24 was not the most-watched game on its initial release date, but instead, FIFA 23 was the most-watched. Viewership for the franchise was consistently climbing in the years between 2020 and 2023, but it seems the rebrand to EA Sports FC has negatively impacted the viewership of the series. Not only is it possible for users to compare the Hours Watched of new releases, but Peak Viewers and Peak Channels are also available for this function.
A second new function was also recently added to the page: language distribution of watch time. Users can now see exactly where new releases have received their viewership from, and analyse which regions are the most important for any specific title.
Looking at the Hours Watched distribution for EA Sports FC 24, we can see just how international the audience for the sports title is. German was the largest contributing language towards watch time, mainly thanks to eliasn97, and many other languages contributed millions of hours of watch time.
Want to analyse the release statistics for your favourite new game of 2023? Simply search the title on Streams Charts and enjoy the benefits a PRO subscription grants you. We are always developing our site to have more and more functionality and options for our users to analyse live-streaming viewership, so a PRO subscription is only going to become more worth it. Visit our pricing page to see if a PRO subscription is a good fit for you and your statistical needs.
