Marvel Rivals, the upcoming 6v6 (super)hero shooter from NetEase, just finished its extended closed beta test with over 7 million hours watched on Twitch. According to Streams Charts, the title averaged over 20,000 viewers during the beta test, which ran from July 23 to August 5.
With this viewership, Marvel Rivals was the 20th most watched game on Twitch during its closed beta test running. Ironically, the title prevented its main genre rival, Overwatch 2, from claiming the spot. Blizzard’s hero shooter accrued about 6 million hours during the same period. Notably, the Esports World Cup ran its Overwatch 2 tournament during this timeframe, boosting its visibility.
Part of the reason for Marvel Rivals success was due to its Twitch drops campaign. Viewers that wanted to participate in the beta test could only get their keys through drops, incentivising more watch time. Additionally, NetEase ran tournaments for the title during the beta test and promoted the title at San Diego Comic Con which further boosted viewership.
While this is Marvel Rivals first closed beta test, the title also ran a closed alpha test in May. During the alpha, the title earned 3.8 million hours watched — roughly half as much viewership.
Lil Snack & GamesBeat
GamesBeat is excited to partner with Lil Snack to have customized games just for our audience! We know as gamers ourselves, this is an exciting way to engage through play with the GamesBeat content you have already come to love. Start playing games now!
This Twitch drops strategy has worked well for a number of developers. The highest profile example is Riot Games, who used the program for its Valorant beta test. While Marvel Rivals’ 7 million hours watched in two weeks doesn’t quite match Valorant’s 150-plus million hours watched in its first week, Valorant benefitted from releasing during Covid.
Another more recent example is Tencent’s Arena Breakout: Infinite — its extraction-shooter rival to Escape from Tarkov. The developer gave out multiple rounds of beta keys via Twitch Drops from May 8 through June 28. During its first week, the title earned just shy of 7 million hours watched.
READ SOURCE
