10 Months After Launch, Sea of Thieves is one of Twitch’s Most Popular Games

Mikeha

"Thanks to a steady stream of updates over the last year, Sea of Thieves has seen a rapid resurgence of popularity, with an influx of new and returning players, thanks to regularly hovering in the top 5 positions on Twitch’s most watched games."

http://seaofthieveshub.com/blog/10-months-after-launch-sea-of-thieves-is-one-of-twitchs-most-popular-games/

Sea of Thieves is enjoying a resurgence on Twitch

There are some big names out on the sea

https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/22/18193421/sea-of-thieves-twitch-ninja-dr-disrespect-summit1g

Kyleran

WOW, so many future candidates vying for the Darwin awards. Watching people play video games, weird.

Awesome, thanks for sharing. 

AlmostLancelot

Can I get some 1G's in the chat?

Xasapis

Some games make for better viewing experience than others. I don't think it directly translates to popularity, otherwise the majority of mmorpgs would be doomed as they make rather bad games to watch.

Celcius

Mikeha said:

"Thanks to a steady stream of updates over the last year, Sea of Thieves has seen a rapid resurgence of popularity, with an influx of new and returning players, thanks to regularly hovering in the top 5 positions on Twitch’s most watched games."

http://seaofthieveshub.com/blog/10-months-after-launch-sea-of-thieves-is-one-of-twitchs-most-popular-games/

Tbf, 40k of those viewers are one streamer. It makes it rather skewed. 

Mikeha

Celcius said:

Mikeha said:

"Thanks to a steady stream of updates over the last year, Sea of Thieves has seen a rapid resurgence of popularity, with an influx of new and returning players, thanks to regularly hovering in the top 5 positions on Twitch’s most watched games."

http://seaofthieveshub.com/blog/10-months-after-launch-sea-of-thieves-is-one-of-twitchs-most-popular-games/

Tbf, 40k of those viewers are one streamer. It makes it rather skewed. 

This article is from Jan 23 and if you would read the article they explain how the most popular Streamers are now streaming Sea Of Thieves.

Here is another one that also talks about it. 

https://www.polygon.com/2019/1/22/18193421/sea-of-thieves-twitch-ninja-dr-disrespect-summit1g

Sovrath

Kyleran said:

WOW, so many future candidates vying for the Darwin awards. Watching people play video games, weird.

Awesome, thanks for sharing. 

Actually, I sort of get it.

I'm not really "into" watching people play video games (except when a friend used to play the Warcraft series or Doom) BUT I recently found one guy playing a recent Dark Souls mod and it's sort of entertaining. I've pretty much watched the entire set of 36 or so episodes.

I think part of it is that I'm only "ok" at Dark Souls so watching someone play not only gives me ideas of how to play better but there is a better sense of narrative to the game that I don't get when I'm dodging for my life!

Luiden

They can be entertaining.. and educational depending on the game.  So it's definitely a thing now.  I don't really get the appeal of watching Fortnite though, it's such a twitch based game it's really hard to follow what the gamer is actually doing.  Those numbers are inflated by 1 streamer I think.  Games like League of Legends that don't have as much of a fast moving screen are far more enjoyable to watch.  Note too that we are in the offseason for League of Legends and many of the pros aren't streaming right now.

It's noteworthy though to see so much action for sea of theives, might be worth checking out.  But before you do, remember that in this top 10 also includes Runescape.. I can't really explain that one.

Xasapis

For me there are three reasons I would watch a game stream:

• I'm entertained by the streamer. Some people are naturally charismatic and entertaining, regardless of what game they play. The same people I can also sit and listen to chat with their audience without playing any game.
• I'm interested to see the thoughts and reactions interesting people have when playing the same game I do. In this case the game itself is the stage and the streamers are the active participants making the combined experience interesting.
• A streamer is particularly good in a game I'm interested in. Whether it's knowledge or skill, watching such a streamer is akin to getting mentored by a better player, making me better in the process.

foxgirl

I wish I could afford it, it looks like fun.

Dillig

Not sure where these numbers come from but they are not at all accurate. Maybe that specific day they had 1 streamer who gets alot of viewers playing it. Here are the stats for the this month.

https://www.twitchmetrics.net/games/popularity


As you can see SoT was 13th not in the top 5

Cryomatrix

Watching people on stream is actually cathartic, it is more about their personality.

There's one guy, i may watch, that plays MLB the show, and i just kind of like listening to him. 

I want to start streaming myself, but i work too much.

Theocritus

If anyone wanted to know where the sheep are, theres the list.

RemyVorender

I've played it for a few hours this past week, but I'm having trouble getting sucked into it. I can't quite put my finger on it. I feel like I should give it more of a chance, but my initial reaction was neutral at best.

Dick1232

The game is ever changing and is amazing. I can t get enough.

Celcius

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

Dick1232

Celcius said:

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

You are one funny guy. Game is complete and getting better weekly. If you played it you would know.

I m sure you ll say you play it daily now, which is BS if you do.

Quizzical

You know what's better than being a popular game to watch?  Being a popular game to play.

Celcius

Dick1232 said:

Celcius said:

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

You are one funny guy. Game is complete and getting better weekly. If you played it you would know.

I m sure you ll say you play it daily now, which is BS if you do.

Nope. I have never played it because the majority opinion is that it is bad.

AlmostLancelot

Celcius said:

Dick1232 said:

Celcius said:

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

You are one funny guy. Game is complete and getting better weekly. If you played it you would know.

I m sure you ll say you play it daily now, which is BS if you do.

Nope. I have never played it because the majority opinion is that it is bad.

So if six of your friends jumped off a cliff, you'd consider that to be a good idea because the majority did?

Some people are followers and some are leaders, I guess we know which group you fall into eh?

Celcius

AlmostLancelot said:

Celcius said:

Dick1232 said:

Celcius said:

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

You are one funny guy. Game is complete and getting better weekly. If you played it you would know.

I m sure you ll say you play it daily now, which is BS if you do.

Nope. I have never played it because the majority opinion is that it is bad.

So if six of your friends jumped off a cliff, you'd consider that to be a good idea because the majority did?

Some people are followers and some are leaders, I guess we know which group you fall into eh?

No. I just know that if most people think a game is bad, it is likely bad. That analogy is a little extreme 99% of the time it is used though, lol. Why would I waste 60$ on a game that most people think is bad? If it was even half decent, it would get much better reviews. It is pretty rare that a game with such low scores is a game I would actually enjoy. There are far too many good games out there for me to risk throwing money at a game like this one. 

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sea-of-thieves

Obviously I don't just base it on the score, but I base it on what I have seen / the content I know that is available. For example, it requires friends to have fun with it seems to be a general consensus. Everything is more fun with friends. If a game is more fun with friends as a primary selling point...that generally means the game doesn't have many strengths. No Man's Sea may get better eventually, but that ship has sailed at this point. 

Celcius

Arterius said:

Celcius said:

AlmostLancelot said:

Celcius said:

Dick1232 said:

Celcius said:

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

You are one funny guy. Game is complete and getting better weekly. If you played it you would know.

I m sure you ll say you play it daily now, which is BS if you do.

Nope. I have never played it because the majority opinion is that it is bad.

So if six of your friends jumped off a cliff, you'd consider that to be a good idea because the majority did?

Some people are followers and some are leaders, I guess we know which group you fall into eh?

No. I just know that if most people think a game is bad, it is likely bad. That analogy is a little extreme 99% of the time it is used though, lol. Why would I waste 60$ on a game that most people think is bad? If it was even half decent, it would get much better reviews. It is pretty rare that a game with such low scores is a game I would actually enjoy. There are far too many good games out there for me to risk throwing money at a game like this one. 

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sea-of-thieves

Obviously I don't just base it on the score, but I base it on what I have seen / the content I know that is available. For example, it requires friends to have fun with it seems to be a general consensus. Everything is more fun with friends. If a game is more fun with friends as a primary selling point...that generally means the game doesn't have many strengths. No Man's Sea may get better eventually, but that ship has sailed at this point. 

I agree and disagree. I think there are plenty of games that have improved after launch and the review scores given mean nothing anymore. I think if you game is an online game and its been a while since launch looking at review's in the wrong way to go. ESO is great right now but was terrible at launch. Same with FFXIV and I would even argue No Mans sky. 

The problem with Sea Of Thieves @Celcius is that it is only good with friends and does in fact rely upon that. I have tried to jump into the game multiple times since release and every time I end up leaving once again because the game is so reliant on the social aspect to be half way entertaining because the content doesn't do that for you on its own. 

You are right that games improve, but it doesn't mean anything unless it actually catches on. It has not really done that with No Man's Sea just yet. I mean, give it another 6 months and it might be worth a purchase at a lower entry fee. No Man's Sky improved a lot, but it still never really caught back on. ESO and FFIV (Realm Reborn) released to pretty good reception, actually. The original title was rebooted completely and marketed as a new game which is far different then just a few improvements over a 6-10 month period of time. ESO's reception was obviously not as good as FF14's but it was no where near the catastrophes that are No Man Sky / Sea. There is no recovering from that. 

There are good examples of games that also released in poor condition and are doing quite well now (Rainbow Six Siege / For Honor), but those games' problems were not really related to the gameplay or content. You could see a good game under the hood. No Man's Sea has a content and gameplay problem, in a game without much ongoing monetization by a developer who is working on other titles. That is much harder to fix with time. 

Quizzical

AlmostLancelot said:

Celcius said:

Dick1232 said:

Celcius said:

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

You are one funny guy. Game is complete and getting better weekly. If you played it you would know.

I m sure you ll say you play it daily now, which is BS if you do.

Nope. I have never played it because the majority opinion is that it is bad.

So if six of your friends jumped off a cliff, you'd consider that to be a good idea because the majority did?

Some people are followers and some are leaders, I guess we know which group you fall into eh?

I think a better analogy would be that if all of your friends didn't jump off a cliff, you wouldn't seriously consider jumping off a cliff, either.

Celcius

Quizzical said:

AlmostLancelot said:

Celcius said:

Dick1232 said:

Celcius said:

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

You are one funny guy. Game is complete and getting better weekly. If you played it you would know.

I m sure you ll say you play it daily now, which is BS if you do.

Nope. I have never played it because the majority opinion is that it is bad.

So if six of your friends jumped off a cliff, you'd consider that to be a good idea because the majority did?

Some people are followers and some are leaders, I guess we know which group you fall into eh?

I think a better analogy would be that if all of your friends didn't jump off a cliff, you wouldn't seriously consider jumping off a cliff, either.

I approve of this. 

lahnmir

Celcius said:

Arterius said:

Celcius said:

AlmostLancelot said:

Celcius said:

Dick1232 said:

Celcius said:

Ultimately twitch viewership does not really matter for a game's success unless a ton of streamers are streaming it. The number of viewers is more based upon the popularity of the streamer. 

I mean hell, right now Sea of Thieves is under 10k viewers. The average for Sea of Thieves is around 20k viewers. 

DrDisrespect and Summit streamed it. Those 2 alone up the average in a given month as well. 

The game has been and continues to be an unfinished content-light game that should be in early access. 

You are one funny guy. Game is complete and getting better weekly. If you played it you would know.

I m sure you ll say you play it daily now, which is BS if you do.

Nope. I have never played it because the majority opinion is that it is bad.

So if six of your friends jumped off a cliff, you'd consider that to be a good idea because the majority did?

Some people are followers and some are leaders, I guess we know which group you fall into eh?

No. I just know that if most people think a game is bad, it is likely bad. That analogy is a little extreme 99% of the time it is used though, lol. Why would I waste 60$ on a game that most people think is bad? If it was even half decent, it would get much better reviews. It is pretty rare that a game with such low scores is a game I would actually enjoy. There are far too many good games out there for me to risk throwing money at a game like this one. 

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/sea-of-thieves

Obviously I don't just base it on the score, but I base it on what I have seen / the content I know that is available. For example, it requires friends to have fun with it seems to be a general consensus. Everything is more fun with friends. If a game is more fun with friends as a primary selling point...that generally means the game doesn't have many strengths. No Man's Sea may get better eventually, but that ship has sailed at this point. 

I agree and disagree. I think there are plenty of games that have improved after launch and the review scores given mean nothing anymore. I think if you game is an online game and its been a while since launch looking at review's in the wrong way to go. ESO is great right now but was terrible at launch. Same with FFXIV and I would even argue No Mans sky. 

The problem with Sea Of Thieves @Celcius is that it is only good with friends and does in fact rely upon that. I have tried to jump into the game multiple times since release and every time I end up leaving once again because the game is so reliant on the social aspect to be half way entertaining because the content doesn't do that for you on its own. 

You are right that games improve, but it doesn't mean anything unless it actually catches on. It has not really done that with No Man's Sea just yet. I mean, give it another 6 months and it might be worth a purchase at a lower entry fee. No Man's Sky improved a lot, but it still never really caught back on. ESO and FFIV (Realm Reborn) released to pretty good reception, actually. The original title was rebooted completely and marketed as a new game which is far different then just a few improvements over a 6-10 month period of time. ESO's reception was obviously not as good as FF14's but it was no where near the catastrophes that are No Man Sky / Sea. There is no recovering from that. 

There are good examples of games that also released in poor condition and are doing quite well now (Rainbow Six Siege / For Honor), but those games' problems were not really related to the gameplay or content. You could see a good game under the hood. No Man's Sea has a content and gameplay problem, in a game without much ongoing monetization by a developer who is working on other titles. That is much harder to fix with time. 

Although I don’t disagree with your statements I am rarher surprised by you mentioning NMS. That game has done a full 180 and has added an absolute shitload of gameplay and features at a speed other companies can only dream of. There is absolutely no shortage of content or gameplay and the recent patches etc. have been very, very well received, its in great shape and had turned into quite a brilliant game. This is also the general consensus.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Dragnelus