Slay the Spire II, the sequel to the genre-defining deckbuilding game, arrived on March 5, 2026, immediately attracting a wide audience for its arrival. The peak viewership of the sequel already exceeds what its predecessor had managed in livestreaming, and it rocketed to the top of Twitch as one of the most-watched games. Streams Charts takes a look at the opening weekend release viewership for Slay the Spire II, including top streamers and more.
The original Slay the Spire landed on the Steam store in late 2017, developed by a two-person team called Mega Crit. After its official full release in 2019, the game continued to build a reputation through word-of-mouth, streamer exposure, and a reception that would see it win awards across the industry. Its deceptively simple concept was a turn-based roguelike where the player climbs a procedurally generated tower, building a card deck as they go. Each run is different, and it inspired many of the greatest roguelike and deckbuilding games in recent years.
The release of Slay the Spire II was one of the most anticipated indie game launches in recent memory, and the viewership data from its opening weekend reflects that anticipation fully. Slay the Spire II arrived on the same day as Bungie's Marathon, placing two highly anticipated titles in direct competition for both players and streaming audiences. On Twitch, the deckbuilding roguelike more than held its own.
Slay the Spire II: opening weekend viewership statistics
Across the launch weekend, Slay the Spire II generated 3.97M Hours Watched (HW) on Twitch, with tens of thousands of viewers tuned in at any moment. The release was also covered on other livestreaming platforms such as YouTube and Kick, but Twitch hosted the vast majority of its livestreaming reception. More than 2,200 different channels broadcasted the title, and although most of the viewership for the game was English-language, the largest amount of streamers to cover the title came from Japan — Japanese streamers outnumbered the second-largest demographic, US creators, by over 200 Unique Channels.
The global reception for Slay the Spire II in livestreaming was also mirrored on Steam, where the game rocketed to the top of the platform’s charts. According to SteamDB Charts, more than 574,000 Steam users booted up the new indie release at peak, putting it ahead of other new releases like Resident Evil: Requiem, and only slightly behind the triple-A Battlefield 6. Although Slay the Spire II was able to outperform many other new releases in terms of player count, livestreaming was a different story.
On Twitch specifically, Slay the Spire received over 130,000 Peak Viewers (PV), more than the original title had ever managed — its record on Twitch sits at 117K PV. While a strong release, but fell behind the reception for other titles Resident: Evil Requiem and Marathon. In terms of peak concurrent viewership, Resident Evil: Requiem actually dwarfed Slay the Spire II, with over 606,000 PV tuning in for the new RE franchise entry.
On Twitch specifically, a comparison against the new release Marathon is a bit more complicated. While Slay the Spire II fell behind in terms of peak concurrent viewership, it maintained a slightly higher average concurrent viewer count. However, thousands more streamerers broadcast Marathon for its release, meaning its slightly lower average count still equals a larger total watch time.
Slay the Spire II was undoubtedly one of the most popular indie game releases of 2026, going toe-to-toe on release day with some of gaming’s largest franchises and developers. Impressively, the title managed this warm reception without the activation of Twitch Drops, a feature often utilitzed by new releases to leverage a strong intial audience.
Slay the Spire II release Twitch Drops
Slay the Spire II did not launch with a Twitch Drops campaign enabled. No in-game rewards were offered to viewers for watching streams of the title during its opening weekend, placing it in direct contrast with other releases such as Marathon, which ran an active Drops campaign from launch day. The absence of Drops for Slay the Spire II is worth noting explicitly, because it makes the game's organic Twitch viewership more significant rather than less.
Top streamers for Slay the Spire II's release
The community behind Slay the Spire was what made the sequel’s launch one of the most popular indie releases in livestreaming. Generally, the coverage on Twitch was largely made up of Japanese, North American, and Taiwanese creators. In terms of viewership, most watch time came from US creators, with Japanese and Taiwanese streamers sharing a roughly equal amount of watch time.
Chikara “Fps_shaka” Kawakamifrom Japan was the most-watched Slay the Spire II channel for its release weekend, earning just shy of 170,000 HW. He was closely followed by Connor “CDawg” Colquhoun and Preston “AdmiralBahroo” Shimek, two popular English-language creators on Twitch. While Japan hosted the most Unique Channels for the release, English-speaking viewership dominated viewership across the charts.
Slay the Spire II release top streamers by Hours Watched & Peak Viewers
In terms of peak concurrent viewers, Félix “xQc” Lengyel briefly streamed the title to a large viewership of 24K PV. Fellow Canadian creator Ryan “NorthernLion” Letourneau also topped the chart with 21K PV — NorthernLion would have likely topped the watch time charts too, but he took a couple of days off from streaming after Slay the Spire II’s release. Other top creators by peak viewership for the Slay the Spire II release span across European audiences, with top creators representing their country’s Twitch demographic.
Slay the Spire II release viewership by day
The day-by-day viewership curve for Slay the Spire II on Twitch show that March 6 was the true ‘release day’ for the title. While it launched on March 5 in the late morning for American fans, European streamers had to wait until evening, and its many Japanese and Taiwanese streamers until the middle of the night. It’s also worth noting that Streams Charts database operates on a European timezone, meaning the title only had a few hours to generate viewership on March 5.
Most of Slay the Spire II’s opening viewership came on the first day, with viewership tapering off immediately after for the weekend. While other titles like Marathon saw their viewership climb into the weekend, Slay the Spire did not follow the same pattern. The spike in watch time on March 6 was enough for the title to land among the most-watched games on Twitch, where it ranked as the sixth-most-watched category across the entire platform.
Most watched games on Twitch: Slay the Spire II's position
On March 6, Slay the Spire II ranked ahead of Marathon and Resident Evil: Requiem, which had released a week earlier. The new indie release was the fifth-most-watched game on Twitch for the day, with CS2 topping the charts. Amid various esports matches and actions across the top games, Slay the Spire II could have well found itself further up the charts without viewers attention split across these esports events.
The performance of Slay the Spire II across both its Steam launch and its Twitch debut reflects something more durable than launch week hype: a game with a proven existing audience, accessible mechanics, and a streaming-friendly format releasing into a community that had been waiting for it for years. Streams Charts will continue tracking Slay the Spire II's viewership data as the game develops through its Early Access period, with full statistics available on the game's tournament and title tracking pages.
