Overwatch Was 2016's Most-Watched New Game on Twitch
By AJ Caulfield 20 February 2017
Twitch releases its 2016 year-in-review retrospective, and Blizzard Entertainment’s hyper-popular title Overwatch appears as the new game viewers watched most.
With a recent (but unintentional) Bastion buff that made the character OP in the Public Test Realm, more evidence on that points to the upcoming character Doomfist, and an adorable merch item in the Tracer Nendoroid figurine launching soon, the perpetual purr around Blizzard’s Overwatch seems at its highest volume yet. At the rate these Overwatch announcements, rumors, and game updates are rolling out, it seems almost odd to think things would slow down any time soon. But Twitch took time to press pause and look back when it released its 2016 Retrospective, where Overwatch was marked the most-watched new game of the year.
Twitch’s annual retrospective review is completely interactive, presented in fitting game format, and any player that dives in can navigate through the “open road” to discover “how many people watched, streamed, and chatted on Twitch in the past year.” Users can either play as a guest to drive through the lush landscapes and learn more about general Twitch statistics like the 292 billion watch minutes accumulated in 2016 or how Finland is the friendliest country on the streaming platform.
On the contrary, if players have a hankering to uncover specific details in the 2016 Retrospective, they can log in with their Twitch account for a personalized experience that culminates in a special prize once the trip reaches its end. It’s worth nothing that Twitch has stated this version is not live, but will be “shortly.” However, down either path a player chooses, they will see that Overwatch snagged up the most watch-time of any other new game.
Other figures stated in the retrospective include Twitch’s end-of-year unique streamer summary (which hit 2.2 million), the number of chat messages sent (a whopping 14.2 billion), an astronomical amount of money raised for charity (nearly $25.5 million over the course of the year), and the most-used emote of the year (Kappa, with 413 million uses). Omitted from the 2016 round-up, however, are the platform’s total audience, any statistics regarding Twitch Prime, and a “most popular games” ranking.
Players can embark on the 2016 Retrospective journey over on Twitch’s website.
The fact that Overwatch was Twitch’s most-watched new game in 2016 doesn’t (or, at least, shouldn’t) come as a huge shock to most gaming fans. Overwatch has seen its fair share of super successes in the past, reaching milestones like becoming Blizzard’s fastest title to reach 20 million players, snagging the Game of the Year Award at the 2016 Game Awards, and pulling in a ton of gamers new and seasoned alike to join in on the festive fun in the game’s Winter Wonderland event.
Interestingly enough, Blizzard and the Overwatch team did a retrospective of their own last year, in which the game’s director Jeff Kaplan laid out some pretty exciting ideas for 2017. In the “year in review” video, Kaplan dove into details on competitive play seasons, upcoming nerfs and buffs for certain characters to bring balance and boost viability, and teased a bit about a handful of new heroes players will be introduced to in the coming year. Combine Overwatch‘s astounding, most instant success last year (hitting 7 million registered players in its first week) with its stamp as Twitch’s most-watched new game of 2016, and it looks like the title’s big plans might bring about a repeat retrospective win.
Overwatch released May 23, 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
