VR games on Twitch: great success in 2020

Loading

VR has not yet become an entertainment for the general public: although technology has advanced significantly and many new (and good!) games have been released, it is still  a very expensive entertainment. However, 2020 has been a pretty successful year for VR, including its popularity on Twitch. Let’s break down which titles attracted the most attention of gamers and viewers, and which streamers were especially keen on virtual reality games.

The rise of VR on Twitch

In 2020, not only many interesting VR projects came out, but also new VR headsets (including critically acclaimed Oculus Quest 2). All this was reflected in the audience's interest in virtual reality games.

In the second half of 2019 the amount of hours viewers spent watching VR games did not even reach two million, but by the end of 2020 this figure had doubled. At the same time, the most successful period for VR was the first quarter of 2020 (almost 7 million hours watched), when the long-awaited release of Half-Life: Alyx took place.

However, not a single VR project has become a regular game on the Twitch top. Interest in virtual reality games can grow rapidly, but at the same time it is also dropping as sharply. Nevertheless, the overall viewership dynamics is positive.

Most popular VR games

Hardly anyone will be surprised that the most popular VR game of the past year was Half-Life: Alyx. The fans of the series were so tired of waiting for the new game (13 years have passed since Episode 2 release!) that many bought VR systems just to play Alyx.

Half-Life: Alyx accounted for 31.8% of the total VR games hours watched in 2020. The second place went to Beat Saber, which was released back in November 2018. It collected 26.5% of the total which is not a bad result, considering that the game is just a bit behind Half-Life: Alyx.

The top 3 was closed by Phasmophobia (18.6%), which was released in aarly access in September 2020. But it is necessary to note that although the game supports VR, the vast majority of gamers play it without using this technology.

In 2020, several more major VR games were released. These are The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, Population: One, as well as Microsoft Flight Simulator and Star Wars Squadrons (both support VR). One can also name Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond: many were looking forward to the title, but it turned out to be a failure from a technical point of view. Yet all these games were not so interesting to the audience.

Which of the top streamers were especially keen on VR?

Popular content makers could not ignore VR: at least for the sake of Half-Life: Alyx. However, they did not stay for long in such games.

Saqib LIRIK Zahid became the leader among the top streamers that played VR, gaining 844K hours watched (1.69% of the total streamer’s HW in a year). Zahid was extremely selective in his choice of games: he only played Half-Life: Alyx and Phasmophobia.

The rest of the top content makers are in a fairly dense group. It includes CohhCarnage, MOONMOON, xQc and Russian content maker WELOVEGAMES. Outside the top 5 (but close to it!) were Rubius, pokelawls, sodapoppin, shroud and SingSing.

Note that Spanish streamer Auronplay and several other top content makers did not make it to the top: they in fact played games that support VR, but didn’t use that technology while streaming.

Another interesting fact: among the top 1000 Twitch channels of 2020 about 5% have streamed VR games at least once.

Which streamers focused on VR?

VR is just one of many ways to diversify content (and potentially attract new viewers) for top streamers. But there lesser-known Twitch streamers who devote the vast majority of their airtime to VR projects.

The Brazilian content creator Felps (not to be confused with a CS:GO player!) has become the absolute leader among streamers who mainly play VR games: over 738K hours watched. This is 3.5 times more than his closest pursuer had.

The second place went to the Korean streamer under the name 똘똘 똘이 _. Although he was inferior to Felps in the amount of hours watched, he became the leader in the number of tested VR games: 14 titles.

It is noteworthy that Tyler McVicker, one of the most famous insiders who often shares news about Valve, also got into the top 5. Not surprisingly, he only played Valve’s games Half-Life: Alyx and The Lab.

VR is unlikely to continue to grow as rapidly in 2021 as it did in 2020. There are no projects on the horizon that are comparable to the scale and ambitions of Half-Life: Alyx. So it’s still an open question: what kind of game should come out in order to convince an ordinary gamer of the need to buy a VR helmet?