The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive audience on Twitch reached twice its usual peak last afternoon, reaching about 210,000 concurrent viewers at 4 pm CT on Dec. 6. Streaming statistics websites TwitchTracker and SullyGnome show about that same number of viewers for last night’s peak for CS:GO, which made it the highest peak for the game since the IEM Chicago grand finals on Nov. 11.
That peak happened a few moments after CS:GO’s new battle royale mode Danger Zone was announced and the title became free-to-play. Big streamers like former CS:GO pro player Michael “shroud” Grzesiek were streaming Danger Zone for a few hours, and shroud alone reached 100,000 viewers, according to SullyGnome.
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That number made CS:GO the most watched game on Twitch around 4 pm CT, beating Fortnite’s 150,000 viewers on the day of its seventh season release. SullyGnome also shows CS:GO had twice the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate peak audience in its first hours since release yesterday.
CS:GO’s Danger Zone came a bit late to battle royale fever, but it spiked people’s interest on the day of its release like other games of the genre. For instance, the battle royale version of Call of Duty, Blackout, was also trending on the night of its release, but the hype around it has died out since. Some streamers who focused on Blackout then went back to their usual schedule of Fortnite or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
It’s early to say the same will happen to Danger Zone, and of course it could also make CS:GO more popular on Twitch as days go by. Either way, the mode was off to a good start. As other famous streamers test this new mode, we’ll perhaps see similar peaks in the next couple of days, especially if shroud streams it again.
