Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond, the latest collectible card game from Cygames, Inc., launched on June 17. Inspired by the success of the original 2016 title, the new release was met with some skepticism from longtime fans. When it came to livestreaming, most of the launch-day broadcasts were hosted by Japanese streamers.
The launch of Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond was anything but smooth. Players encountered a host of problems, from technical glitches to unstable servers. One of the biggest frustrations was the game's regional restrictions — many users had to rely on VPNs just to log in, and even that didn't always solve the issue. The game’s monetization model has also faced heavy criticism, as it now demands significantly more spending than before just to enjoy a comfortable gameplay experience. As a result, Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond was hit with a wave of review bombing on Steam and now holds an overwhelmingly negative rating on its store page.
On June 17, Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond streams on Twitch generated a total of 755,800 hours watched. The game peaked at 790 active channels, though the average was closer to 150. On launch day, it reached 13th place among all gaming categories on Twitch. However, it couldn’t outperform Dune: Awakening or Mario Kart World, which were also released in June.
Regional restrictions likely limited the game's visibility to mostly Japanese streamers and VTubers. The biggest audience went to k4sen, a popular League of Legends streamer, whose Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond stream peaked at nearly 28,400 concurrent viewers. Coming in second was sasatikk, another prominent Japanese content creator known for streaming games like Escape from Tarkov, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, and Rust.
Overall, the launch could have gone much better, but the developers still have a chance to fix the issues quickly. If major Western streamers like Zack ‘’zackrawrr’’ Hoyt — known for playing the latest releases — pick up the game, Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond could very well break into Twitch’s top 10, even if only for a short time.
