WoW Classic beta dominated Twitch last week

In the nine days since The World of Warcraft Classic beta opened on May 15, the game has dominated Twitch. Popular World of Warcraft streamers like Chance “Sodapoppin” Morris and Zack “Asmongold” even achieved viewership numbers higher than those of established channels such as Tyler “Ninja” Blevins or the official Riot Games stream.

This is a massive increase in viewership for World of Warcraft. According to TwitchMetrics, the MMORPG only cracked 50,000 average viewers on one occasion between late February and early May. On May 16, the beta’s first full day, the game posted an average viewership of almost 98,000, and it has continued to pull numbers far above 50,000 ever since.

This isn’t the first time a hype release has led to massive inflation of a game’s viewership count. In December, Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios topped the charts for the week following the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but his viewership subsided in the ensuing months.

Unlike ZeRo, however, Sodapoppin and Asmongold are part of a very small-scale beta, with their streams acting the only real viewing option for many WoW fans itching to get their fix of Classic. Until the game drops in August, the viewership numbers of top Warcraft streamers could stay inflated.