FIFA 23 isn’t the first game that springs to mind when talking about trending games on Twitch. But, the latest iteration of the long-standing soccer simulator franchise, and the last one before it’s rebranded, has been the most trending game on Twitch in the past month.
FIFA 23 has been watched on stream for more than 73.8 million hours between Oct. 1 and Oct. 20, far more than it was in the previous month—although it launched in the final week of September.
It had the highest viewership jump of any other game on the platform, including Pokémon Community Game, Grounded, Gundam Evolution, and Terraria, which comprise the top five.
A handful of streamers are responsible for this, including Castro_1021, RocKy_, and, Trymacs. But, the one who had the most impact was eliasn97, who single-handedly generated ten percent of those hours.
The biggest question is, though, will this trend continue?
FIFA titles have a history of blowing up in viewership immediately after launch, only to come crashing down once the novelty wears off.
FIFA 22, for example, was released at a similar time last year and peaked in Oct. 2021, averaging 76,000 viewers across 1,478 channels. Those numbers dropped to 49,440 and 1,067 the following month and steadily declined from that point onward, aside from two small bumps in Jan. and May. 2022.
FIFA 21 had the same fate, peaking in Oct. 2020 with 82,260 viewers across 1,427 channels. FIFA 20 was an anomaly, though. It peaked in May 2020, eight months after it released, due to the FIFA Ultimate Team: Team of the Season event kicking off early.
What this data suggests is, unless EA cooks up something massive later in the FUT season, FIFA 23’s viewership numbers on Twitch are probably the highest they’re going to be. It’s all downhill from here—any downward trend won’t be a surprise.
Still, the fact it became the most trending game shortly after release is a huge feat.
