World War Z Twitch viewership has reportedly declined 80% just two days after the game’s launch on the Epic Games Store. This action-packed zombie shooter came from the same world as the 2013 film starring Brad Pitt and it seems like it may very well have a similarly lackluster showing. Although it made a strong debut on video streaming service Twitch with a peak of 133,000 concurrent viewers, the hype has since died down considerably to a peak of only 26,000 concurrent viewers.
GiyHyp reports that the decline took place on the third day of the game’s release despite a relatively popular launch. Analytics website TwitchTracker shows a similarly-sharp decline in their metrics, although this particular website does not yet have the most recent date that shows off the decline in World War Z Twitch viewership.
One particular point to highlight is that developer Saber Interactive reportedly paid some of Twitch’s top streamers to play the game on the second day of its release. It may be that these sponsored streams helped alleviate the decline in World War Z Twitch viewership and the lack of said streams revealed the true state of the game on Twitch on the third day.
Although the viewer numbers have declined, feedback from streamers appeared to have been relatively positive. Comparisons had been made to Left 4 Dead, although some of the streamers questioned the game’s long-term ability to survive in the modern gaming market. Those concerns may be being demonstrated in the drop in viewers.
Another possible issue is the exclusivity of the game on the Epic Games Store. There are a number of concerns about the digital distribution service—some reasonable, some not—and gamers may be unwilling to go the extra mile to pick up an unproven IP on a storefront that they’re not all that fond of.
World War Z currently holds the #33 position on GitHyp’s list of Most Watched Games on Twitch at the time of writing. We can’t say for sure why exactly World War Z Twitch viewership has dropped so precipitously, but one thing is certain: the game’s future doesn’t look very good.
