Lost Ark records second-best Twitch launch in platform’s history

Brad Norton
Lost Ark gameplay on Twitch

Lost Ark is already demolishing records before the full game even unlocks as the new Amazon Games published MMO has recorded the second-biggest launch on Twitch in history, nearing the numbers set by Valorant in 2020.

Just days into its early access period in the Western market and Lost Ark is already making history. While the MMO from Smilegate RPG has been a massive hit in South Korea since 2019, a new port from Amazon Games has been met with more enthusiasm than ever.

In the 48 hours that followed its early access launch on February 8, Lost Ark became the second most-watched video game launch of all time on Twitch. Trumping Cyberpunk 2077, the game now sits firmly behind Valorant. All of this before the floodgates even truly open with the full free-to-play release on February 11.

A staggering 23.11 million hours of watch-time have already been logged on the streaming platform in just 48 hours, according to early data from Gamesight.

lost ark key art
Launch hype surrounding Lost Ark has led to the second biggest 48-hour stretch in Twitch history.

Holding an average of 471,500 viewers across its first two days, Lost Ark has skyrocketed well beyond any previous MMO launch on Twitch. 

The title peaked with 1.28 million concurrent viewers, cementing its spot in the Twitch history books. Only Valorant tops it and Riot’s tactical shooter had the benefit of early access Twitch drops to drive viewership in early 2020.

Lost Ark, on the other hand, has recorded this groundbreaking viewership with only a handful of cosmetics up for grabs on Twitch.

While the game itself has shot to the top of Twitch, a number of individual channels have also benefited greatly from this massive launch.

Namely, Asmongold alone has played a huge role in driving this viewership. With the long-awaited return to his main channel, the popular Twitch streamer not only crushed his all-time concurrent viewership record, but averaged a total of 161,820 viewers across this 48-hour stretch.

Lost Ark still has a long way to go to clear Valorant’s 48-hour peak during Beta.

Naturally, viewership is sure to taper off sooner or later as launch hype begins to die down. But the biggest push yet could still be to come for Lost Ark.

The game is just hours away from launching out of early access, meaning these millions of viewers can soon get their hands on the game. There’s every chance we haven’t seen the best of what Lost Ark has to offer on Twitch just yet.

Related Topics

About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com