Streams Charts PRO users can navigate to the Release stats tab of a games’ page to see the first-week viewership statistics for betas, early access releases, and official releases of all games broadcasted on Twitch. Using this functionality, Streams Charts has collated a ranking of the most-watched and most popular game releases of the first quarter of the year.
Below, we will explore the top game releases of Q1 2024 by first-week viewership, peak concurrent viewers, and peak concurrent channels broadcasting the game on Twitch. Finally, we have created a ranking of the most-watched game releases of 2024 by their Q1 total watch time, which does admittedly favour titles released earlier in the quarter.
The release week statistics for games are exclusively available for the Twitch statistics of each title; the mentioned games may have achieved higher viewership on other platforms such as YouTube Live, but they are not accounted for here.
Top Game Releases of Q1 2024
Leading the 2024 viewership, Last Epoch was the top game release of Q1 2024. The Action RPG title was the first foray of new publisher and developer Eleventh Hour Games, an all-remote indie studio. The game looks similar to the predecessors of Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios, and it was streamed by some of the most popular North American broadcasters on Twitch.
Famed Twitch streamers zackrawrr (Asmongold) and Quin69 were particularly critical for the first-week viewership of the title, which totalled 11.35M Hours Watched. The latter also broadcasted the game during its multiplayer beta last March and was quick to support its official release this February. The viewership of the title was also boosted by Twitch Drops, which both of the leading streamers for the game had enabled during their multiple broadcasts and play sessions.
In second place, the long-awaited Dragon’s Dogma II generated 10.93M Hours Watched during its first week of official release. Arriving 12 years after the first Dragon’s Dogma, the second iteration of the franchise received a warm welcome on Twitch.
Similar to Last Epoch, the game appealed largely to North American English-speaking audiences. Zackrawrr once again led the viewership for the title, but CohhCarnage and shroud also contributed hundreds of thousands of HW to the title. The game received 3.3M Hours Watched on release day alone, and although viewership has slowed down significantly since March, it continues to receive thousands of viewers on Twitch.
Finishing up the podium places, HELLDIVERS™ 2 received 7.34M Hours Watched during opening week. However, dissimilar to the other top 3 titles, Helldivers has managed to hold onto a more sizable audience that has continued to generate high viewership for the title months after its release. The release week viewership was boosted by many of the aforementioned North American streamers like CohhCarnage and shroud, but other international streamers also supported the title: these can be explored by our PRO users on the games page.
The newest iteration to the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, garnered 7M Hours Watched in its first release week. The title was played on Twitch throughout March, although by now the viewership of the game has whittled down considerably, which is typical for single-player titles on Twitch.
A newcomer to the fighting game community, Tekken 8 was the most-watched new release for the fighting genre in 2024. With 6.74M HW generated in one week alone, the title sits only behind Street Fighter 6 in viewership on Twitch. The multiplayer fighting game title also has maintained a considerably larger viewership than other games on this ranking and will likely continue to generate viewership for the rest of the year.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the newest entry to the Yakuza franchise, developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. The game enjoyed 3.4M Hours Watched in its first week on Twitch, although viewership has since fallen, similar to Skull and Bones. The pirate title earned 2.22M HW in a week but has since seen viewership drastically fall off. Throughout April so far, only 30 channels on average are streaming the game at any given point.
The final three games, Pacific Drive, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and Persona 3 Reload, received 2.1M, 2.05M, and 1.93M HW, respectively. The three titles received significant viewership on release, but the Persona 3 remake has enjoyed the most viewers coming into April of this year. Both Pacific Drive and Granblue Fantasy: Relink have seen a more significant dropoff in viewership.
Sorted by Peak Viewers, the rankings of the most popular games remained roughly the same. Last Epoch and Dragon’s Dogma II both led the ranking once again, this time with 265K Peak Viewers and 187K PV. However, a new contender joined them on the podium places, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Released at the end of January, the Suicide Squad game received significant viewership upon release thanks to sponsored streams with established industry-leading streamers like shroud, eliasn97, and rivers_gg. The game was covered by many more sponsored creators, but these three selected streamers already appeal to three of Twitch’s largest demographics: English-speaking viewers, German-speakers, and Spanish-speaking fans.
Despite this explosive debut on Twitch, the game’s viewership has since dropped significantly. The Suicide Squad title recorded one of the lowest watch times throughout Q1 on this ranking. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden also recorded low average viewership, but a significant peak. The game received 78K Peak Viewers upon release, but fans quickly lost interest, and it recorded only roughly 500 Average Viewers throughout March.
Rather than focusing on what viewers most enjoy watching, this ranking sorted by Peak Channels records the peak number of concurrent channels on Twitch broadcasting a specific title. This is our first ranking where HELLDIVERS 2 took the throne, with 6K Peak Channels on Twitch recorded for the title. Although viewers have enjoyed watching other releases more throughout Q1, this title was many streamers’ favourite of Q1 2024.
Despite enjoying high viewership, Last Epoch ranked only 5th when sorted by Peak Channels. The game was far more popular with viewers than streamers, meaning the ecosystem for the title on Twitch was highly favourable for those streaming.
MLB The Show 2024 also ranked 9th here with 1K Peak Channels recorded. As expected, the video game based on a North American sports league has largely attracted attention from North American streamers. Despite the low potential audience compared to the global size of Twitch, the title has continued to receive decent viewership coming into Q2 of this year, and has a viewership much higher than channels which received similar or slightly more Peak Channels.
The final ranking of our list features the entire quarter watch time for each title. This naturally favours games released earlier in the quarter, but this was no issue for HELLDIVERS 2, which was released in February. The title accumulated over 34M Hours Watched in total, making it the most-watched new release of Q1 2024.
Tekken 8 also generated 24.77M Hours Watched throughout the entire quarter, benefitting significantly from being a multiplayer title and specifically one with a vibrant community behind the franchise. In comparison to other games which received a higher peak viewership upon release, Tekken 8 will continue to generate watch time for the remainder of the year.
Ravendawn and Balatro are both new appearances for this article, the former of which benefited tremendously from an early Q1 release. Ravendawn is a new free-to-play MMORPG, and although its first-week viewership was not as significant as other titles in this ranking, it has maintained a stronger viewership across multiple months. The title enjoyed 6.79M Hours Watched during the quarter and still has a sizable viewership in the first weeks of Q2.
Balatro is a deck-building game released mid-quarter in February. The first-week viewership for the title was rather poor compared to other games here, but it has amassed a loyal audience. Balatro was one of the few games to receive more viewership in its second month of release than its first, and the 5.23M Hours Watched accumulated throughout the quarter were amassed with a healthy spread of watch time from each month. The title continues to enjoy a loyal audience and generate watch time even in Q2.
