This year has been quite interesting for video game releases — led by the unexpected success of Palworld — and expansion packs for older games that have exploded on live-streaming platforms, like Elden Ring. Another game that has recently found a pretty cozy space for itself online is Throne and Liberty, which had a solid open beta run from July 18 to 24 in these regions: North America (West & East), Europe, South America, and Asia Pacific (Japan, New Zealand & Australia).
The game testing phase enjoyed quite the run on Twitch, helping it become one of the most popular RPG games over these seven days. Its 85.1K Peak Viewers put it ahead of much more prominent names like Diablo IV, Rust, and Destiny 2, which is good news as the title gears up for its proper launch in North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan on September 17 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with cross-platform play enabled.
What has helped this shiny new MMO tick along smoothly among online audiences is its excellent graphics. This visual accomplishment, accompanied by a range of PvE and PvP content and the knowledge that it will be released for cross-platform play between consoles and PC, has attracted millions of players and content creators.
Developer NCSoft has also done a solid job with the scope of the world, which might be vast but manages to keep gamers part of the larger whole. Moreover, the game's audio choices, including the sounds of everything rustling around players, lend themselves well to the pleasing visuals to sell the world adequately.
This has also meant that renowned influencers like shroud, zackrawrr, and Altair have been busy spending hours grinding the game and looking to get as far in the game as possible. The Canadian former Counter-Strike pro may not have put too much time into the game, but he has been able to attract a far larger watch time than any other creator to play it during this period.
However, it is World of Warcraft and MMORPG gaming veteran and enthusiast Asmongold, whose alternate account is zackrawrr, who has proved the most popular name to play Throne and Liberty over the past week. Interestingly, he has played a lot of other games over these seven days, including The First Descendant, Once Human, and Zenless Zone Zero, but the game in question attracted the highest average viewer count.
Throne and Liberty also attracted a predominantly European audience as well, with all its top languages coming from this continent. The most-watched Asian broadcaster was Korea's KanonXO, who saw a massive spike of 185% in his watch time compared to the previous seven-day phase.
Compared to some of the more successful PRG releases in 2024, Throne and Liberty's beta run managed to attract a similar number of peak and average channels, but the other games mostly did better in terms of the three main metrics. Looking at the peak concurrent viewership in particular, Dragon's Dogma II, Enshrouded, and Arena Breakout: Infinite recorded 184.3K PV, 218K PV, and 218.4K PV, respectively in the first week after their releases, and they have maintained their statuses as some of the most popular new launches this year.
Over the past few days, there have been concerns about the game's 'pay to win' element but fans have continued to enjoy the game. However, that has not stopped Throne and Liberty from enjoying an extended run as one of the more popular RPG games, with its ranking in the top ten leaderboard continuing until July 28.
Whether it can build on this decent reception of the open beta test to come up with a more satisfying output when the main release happens remains to be seen. For now, NCSoft can be happy with the reception it has received over the past ten days or so, with gamers from this genre also getting another title to enjoy over the rest of the year.
