On the night of January 25th to 26th, according to European time, the release of Tekken 8 took place, the latest installment in the popular fighting game franchise from the Japanese studio Bandai Namco. The gaming community eagerly awaited the game's release, which developers had been teasing for the past two years. So it's no surprise that the fighting game was warmly received on Twitch: Tekken 8 streams gathered tens of thousands of viewers in the first hours after the game's launch.
To celebrate the premiere of Tekken 8, BandaiNamcoUS hosted a two-hour live broadcast on the company's channel with a countdown to the game's release. The stream featured WWE stars from The New Day group: Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, and Big E. They entertained viewers with fun stories and antics, played Tekken together, and interacted with guests in a live broadcast; all of this was accompanied by a DJ performance. As a result, the broadcast on the BandaiNamcoUS channel attracted 18.2K Peak Viewers.
Immediately after the release of Tekken 8, Maximilian_DOOD, one of the most popular fighting game streamers on Twitch, started a stream: he organized a cozy Launch Party during where he and his friends played through the game's storyline. Maximilian_DOOD's stream lasted just over 9 hours, with a peak audience on his channel reaching 37.7K PV.
By the morning of January 26th, the peak online viewership for the Tekken 8 category on Twitch had surpassed 100K. Simultaneously, the number of unique channels at its peak reached 2.700. Tekken 8 streams were also featured on channels such as RDCgaming, Agent00, Lacari, AvoidingThePuddle, moistcr1tikal, and other content creators.
Most watched games and categories on Twitch (first half of Jan 26)
The release of Tekken 8 generated significant activity; however, the question remains whether the game can match or surpass the achievements of Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V. The peak viewership for these titles on Twitch reached 244.5K PV and 250K PV, respectively.
Tekken 8 was released on the night of January 26th and is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows. The game has received mostly positive reviews from gamers and gaming media. The aggregator Metacritic gave Tekken 8 a rating of 94 out of 100 (for the Windows version). However, Steam users have lowered the rating due to technical issues as the game's servers sometimes struggle to handle the influx of players.
