Twitch's Winter Drops Fest is here, meaning fans and viewers are in for a whole lot of online goodies over the next couple of weeks. As per its official announcement on November 30, the company's brand new, ten-day celebration, featuring tons of drops from all the favorite devs, will run from December 7 to 17.
The list of games participating in this year’s fest and their dates are given below. For details, readers can head to this link:
- Path of Exile: 11 AM on December 8 until 11 AM on December 15 (PST)
- Rust: December 16 to 31
- World of Warships: December 7 to December 17
- Party Animals: 12 AM on December 7 until 11:59 PM on December 17 (PST)
- Chess: December 9 to December 16
- Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty: 3 AM on December 5 until 3 AM on December 19 (PST)
- Teamfight Tactics: 12 PM on December 8 until 4 PM on December 10 (PST)
- Pokemon Unite: 11 PM on December 6 until 12 AM on December 17 (PST)
- PUBG: Drop A Week 1: December 5 to 11 PM on December 12 (PST); Week 2: December 12 to 11 PM on December 19 (PST); Drop B: Week 1: December 8 to 12 AM on December 10 (PST); Week 2: December 15 to 1 AM on December 17 (PST)
- Sea of Thieves: 2 AM on December 8 until 2 AM on December 16 (PST)
- Warframe: 11 AM on December 8 until 11 AM on December 15 (ET)
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora: 12:01 AM on December 7 until 11:59 PM on December 17 (PST)
Those looking for more details on Twitch Drops and how they work can check out this article on the official site. There were also some helpful reminders on these Drops on Twitch's blog:
- Ensure to link your account to get your items after claiming a Drop.
- You must claim your Drops on your Twitch account within 24 hours of the campaign ending.
- Find drops that you’ve earned on the Drops and Rewards page, and check out all live Drops campaigns here.
How Twitch Drops affect game viewership statistics
It is by now well-known that Twitch Drops are a great ploy for developers/organizers/streamers to attract more viewers to a specific live broadcast. This also extends to videos that are sponsored — where a content creator and a brand come together to host a stream — as the availability of any kind of reward for audiences almost always results in healthy attendance numbers.
A blog done on one of the pandemic era's most successful games, Rust, showed that these giveaways of in-game items worked wonders in bringing in a larger audience. It revealed that both peak and average concurrent viewership stats can rise anywhere between twice and six times when rewards are made available to users.
A similar trend has been observed with almost every live broadcast where Twitch Drops were made available. Even high-profile esports competitions that make these giveaways available see a sharp rise in their viewership numbers, showing just how effective a tool it can be at any level.
For example, the FC Pro 24 Open saw some impressive viewership activity on the purple platform thanks to the system of in-game rewards for watching the tournament. Day 1 gathered almost 320K PV, the third-highest in discipline history and the second-highest this year, thanks to awards being given for each new game day separately.
In any case, with Twitch Drops available for the above games between December 7 and 17, readers can be sure their audience stats will shoot up. The final figures will be shared by Streams Charts via its monthly rankings articles in January, and those who want an in-depth look at these numbers can purchase our PRO subscription.