The latest Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 3, was launched by Activision on November 10. The gaming community has noticed its lukewarm performance on Twitch, with viewership statistics showing the weakest performance since 2019 for a CoD game.
The game's campaign has received widely documented criticism. However, the multiplayer mode was praised by gamers. This component received a significantly enthusiastic reception compared to the prior iteration of the game, Modern Warfare 2.
Despite the positive reaction to the multiplayer mode, the overall performance of MW3 was disappointing on the streaming platform. This marked one of the worst releases of all time for a CoD game, judging by Twitch viewer numbers.
The game has had a disappointing start on Twitch, failing to compete with the likes of GTA 5, Fortnite and League of Legends in terms of viewer count. Figures show 15 million hours watched since the game's inception and the launch had the worst day one viewer count since 2019.
A Disappointing Launch
According to figures from StreamsCharts, on its first day, Modern Warfare 3 managed to rack up 3.3 million viewed hours. The stream by content creator 'scump' stood out prominently within this, contributing 820,000 hours.
While these figures may not seem disastrous in isolation, when compared to previous Call of Duty games such as the rebooted Modern Warfare, MW2, Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard, the performance of MW3 is relatively weak for its initial week post-launch.
To illustrate this, the game Black Ops Cold War managed to pull in 6.5 million hours watched on its release day – roughly double that of MW3’s launch. Modern Warfare 2 clocked in with 5.3 million viewed hours on the day of its launch.
In comparison to previous years, Modern Warfare 3 had the least successful launch on Twitch since 2019. However, it does seem like viewership is starting to steady itself post-launch. By the fourth day after release, MW3 had garnered more watched time than both Vanguard and Modern Warfare had during their entire lifespan.
What the Future Holds
While the initial figures may seem underwhelming, it would be too early to write off the game just yet. The fate of Modern Warfare 3 on Twitch largely depends on how it will perform in the coming months. It will be interesting to see how it fair as more new content is added to the game.
For now, though, its Twitch performance is undeniably on the lower end compared to its counterparts in the Call of Duty series. The numbers will be closely watched in the weeks ahead to discern whether MW3 can turn the tide and captivate the Twitch audience on a more substantial scale.