Twitch Drops, a feature that allows players to link their game account with their Twitch account and tune into live streams to receive in-game rewards, has been incredibly successful for many games. Games like Escape from Tarkov have utilized this mechanic to great success – continuously skyrocketing to the top of Twitch viewership leagues and growing the game’s popularity. It’s easy to see why Twitch Drops are such a well-loved feature. As long as you have a Twitch account and a game account for whatever game hosts the drop, you stand to get free stuff. Who wouldn’t want that when all you have to do is watch a game, you already like playing?
However, this method doesn’t work for every game. Recently, Wolcen tried and failed.
| You may download the Twitch Desktop App for free
Pre-Launch Hype
Around the time Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem launched in February 2020, they pulled in colossal viewership numbers on Twitch for such a new game. Twitch viewership went from essentially zero to over 40,000 viewers across 813 channels in just a few days. This extreme buzz around the game was mostly due to the pre-launch hype. A few weeks before launch, it seemed everyone was excited for Wolcen. People were desperate for more details on this action role-playing game with a grisly hack and slash combat system. At this point, the game had been in development for a whopping six years, and players were desperate to get their hands on it.
Launch Issues
With so much hype surrounding the game, many people had made sure they were available for launch. People had taken time off work or coordinated their commitments so they could play from the moment it went live. However, these players were let down. The launch was plagued with connection and server issues. Some players had their gear wiped while playing, or lost quest progression, and so on. FPS drops and crashes were also common. Some of these players left and never came back to the game.
Then there were also issues with the trading economy. Players found ways to duplicate items or gold, essentially destroying the in-game economy for other players. Again, people got frustrated and left.
Coaxing Players Back
After these setbacks, the devs were busy trying to fix the game and get it into a playable state, hoping players could return. Unfortunately, the damage for already been done for a lot of people.
If we look at Twitch viewers for Wolcen after April 2020, by which point the numbers had already dwindled considerably, viewers have been hovering between 5 and 15 viewers a day consistently. The game publishers launched a Twitch Drop event in December 2020, hoping to drum up some excitement for the game and coax older players back. When Escape from Tarkov, they double or triple Twitch viewership the day the event goes live, sometimes pulling in hundreds of thousands of viewers. But, while Wolcen’s Twitch Drop event did increase viewership by several magnitudes, the total viewers came to just over 1,100 at their peak. It seems the prospect of free items wasn’t enough to bring people back to the game.
With that said, there are still plenty of dedicated Wolcen fans who are having fun with the game, which is now in a much more stable state. If you’re one of these players and want some additional gold, you can buy Wolcen gold online at Eldorado.gg.
Comments are closed.