Only a fraction of the games released turn into hits. And only a small percentage of those hits establish a community large enough to enter the list of the most-streamed games on Twitch.
The livestreaming video site, which boasts more than 100 million monthly viewers, released the list of the games people broadcasted the most in August, and esports still has the largest audience by far. But that’s not just thanks to multiplayer online arena battlers like League of Legends (No.1) and Dota 2 (No. 3) or even the card-collecting juggernaut Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (No. 4). Instead, publisher Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has powered to the No. 2 spot on the chart for the second month in a row. This establishes shooters as the third piece of the competitive-gaming triumvirate with representatives from other genres like StarCraft II (No. 10), World of Tanks (No. 11), and Rocket League (No. 17) looking in from the outside.
But beyond the continuing story of esports dominance, we have to also acknowledge that — just like at the movie theater — people love watching zombies. Publisher Daybreak’s H1Z1 made a massive jump to No. 5 in August after only registering at No. 15 in July. And DayZ, one of the original zombie survival sims, jumped back into the top 10 at No. 16.
Here’s the full top 20:
- League of Legends
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Dota 2
- Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- H1Z1
- World of Warcraft
- Gaming Talk Shows
- Minecraft
- Destiny
- StarCraft II
- World of Tanks
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III
- ARK: Survival Evolved
- Heroes of the Storm
- FIFA 15
- DayZ
- Rocket League
- Arma III
- RuneScape
- Diablo III: Reaper of Souls