Despite the near-universal critical praise, the remarkable popularity of Baldur’s Gate 3 among content creators is an unexpected surprise that astonished the Twitch staff, making it one of the biggest sensations of 2023.
Without a doubt, Baldur’s Gate 3 marks one of the greatest achievements in recent gaming history. After a significant early access period, the game, released in full on August 3, immediately soared to become the most significant success of Larian Studios.
The game has enchanted millions of players with its charming cast of characters, interminable inventiveness, and truly extraordinary replay value. To this day, approximately 200,000 players on PC alone continue to engage daily, putting it among the top echelon of live service titles such as Counter-Strike 2.
The game's success has been so explosive that various Twitch streamers have seized the opportunity to join the fun. However, its accomplishment on the platform took even Twitch staff by surprise, a sentiment not widely shared before, given that it is a turn-based RPG.
The statistics reflect the game's popularity in no uncertain terms. Over the past 90 days, Baldur’s Gate 3 streams have accumulated more than 58 million hours of total watch time, according to data from SullyGnome, making it the 15th most viewed title on the platform. In terms of peak viewership, the game also managed to reach the top 10, drawing close to half a million simultaneous viewers earlier this year.
During a recent interview at PAX Australia with APAC Content Director Lewis Mitchell, it was revealed that this degree of success wasn’t predicted by Twitch. Lewis explained that there is a subset of creators who are particularly drawn to lore-heavy RPGs, exploring every piece of lore and every item, which resonates well with their community.
Nevertheless, the way Baldur's Gate 3, an RPG and turn-based game, took off caught everyone off guard. This was the biggest surprise for many, including Lewis himself. Even though he's a fan of Baldur’s Gate and Divinity, he's never seen a game of such genres resonate so strongly with a large number of established streamers before. The massive success was unexpected and beyond their anticipation.
Many renowned content creators found themselves smitten by the game around its release, committing many hours to streaming it and trying to discover and accomplish as much as they could. Creators such as shroud, CohnCarnage, and AnnieFuchsia made the game their top priority. For some, it’s become their signature streaming game due to the role-playing elements that allow their unique personalities to shine through in their content.
Given the unexpected surge of Baldur’s Gate 3, it's safe to say that Twitch will be paying close attention to any similar RPGs in the future. The game's success has set a benchmark and opened the door for other similar games to make their mark on the platform.