Elden Ring tops Twitch in first week after launch

FromSoftware’s latest edition to the Dark Souls series of games was one of the most highly-anticipated titles set for 2022. And after one week, the hype for Elden Ring hasn’t died. 

With 74.58 million hours watched over the past seven days, Elden Ring was the most-watched form of content on Twitch with about 10 million more hours watched than Just Chatting and more than twice the viewership of any other game, according to stats from SullyGnome.

Though the game is primarily a PvE RPG, the vast nature of its open world has left players with a lot to chew through, and the sheer volume of content serves as a gold mine for content creators.

As one might expect, Twitch’s most-watched content creator xQc is the most-watched streamer playing Elden Ring as well. With 41 hours of airtime playing the game in the first week following its launch, the popular variety streamer racked up more than three million hours watched, averaging 74,104 viewers and peaking at more than 96,000. 

The other streamers in the top echelon of Elden Ring viewership did so in one of two ways: by streaming a massive number of hours or through posting impressive viewership averages.

Three of the top 10 streamers playing the game—Stylishnoob4, Hanryang1125, and Sardoche—posted more than 80 hours of airtime in the category. Two other streamers recorded more than 70 hours. While those figures aren’t necessarily sustainable, they’re not out of the norm for what content creators do on occasion for especially exciting game releases.

Other channels, like Asmongold and Fextralife, managed to record more than one million hours watched playing the game with more typical airtime numbers in the 20 to 35-hour range. Asmongold had the least number of hours streamed of anyone in the top 10 playing the game with just 21, and his average viewership was a shade under 58,000. Only xQc posted a stronger average.

Due to the nature of single-player games, the viewership of Elden Ring has descended steadily since its release, but it started out so high that it managed to dominate the streaming landscape in just seven days.

While you shouldn’t expect Elden Ring to maintain this level of viewership, its ability to captivate the entire industry and attract the eyes of the masses speaks volumes to the popularity and success of the game.