adminGame sequels can bring creators larger live audiences rather than causing the viewer fatigue marketers sometimes expect. An analysis of Twitch streams across five franchises found that, relative to creators’ usual viewership, sequels generally performed better than their predecessors. The findings offer publishers and creators useful context when planning coverage around a new release.
Bradley Webb is a data analyst at Gamesight, where he analyses creator viewership, influencer marketing performance, and broader creator trends for publishers and marketing teams. Gamesight’s clients include 2K, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Xbox, Warner Bros, Riot Games, and Square Enix.
How game sequels performed on Twitch
The study used internal Gamesight Twitch data to compare the live audiences creators attracted while streaming an original game and its sequel. It covered the period from the original game’s launch through the first 30 days after the sequel launched. Video-on-demand views and social media activity were not included.
To make the comparison creator-specific, the analysis included only “dual streamers”: creators who streamed both games and had an average concurrent viewer (ACV) count of at least 10 for each title. The final sample included 8,079 creators across Ghost of Tsushima, Borderlands, Hollow Knight, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Death Stranding.
Across the five franchises, sequel streams performed 6.3 percentage points better relative to creators’ baseline content than streams of the original games. The pattern appeared in four of the five franchises, and in those four, most creators saw their viewership rise while streaming the sequel. For creators assessing a release, comparing game performance with their own typical audience can be more informative than relying on franchise-wide expectations alone.
Sequel performance change across franchises. Image credit: Gamesight.
Viewership gains across creator sizes
Every creator-size group showed an improvement for sequels in the combined results. Large creators, with a baseline of 1,000–10,000 ACV, recorded the biggest increase at 8.2 percentage points. Mid-sized creators (100–1,000 ACV) improved by 7.8 points, while mega creators (10,000+ ACV) gained 5.4 points. Micro creators, with fewer than 100 ACV, also improved, by 2.7 points.
This result suggests sequel performance was not limited to the largest channels in this sample. Creators of different sizes can use their own baseline viewership to judge whether a new game is drawing an unusually strong audience.
Sequel performance by creator size. Image credit: Gamesight.
Borderlands 3 and Borderlands 4: a notable shift
Borderlands showed the largest change in the study. Borderlands 3 averaged 14.6% below creators’ baseline, and 28.6% of creators exceeded their typical viewership. For Borderlands 4, performance averaged 11.7% above baseline, a 26.3 percentage-point swing. The share of creators who outperformed their baseline rose to 44.2%.
The performance distribution shifted toward stronger results, indicating that the improvement was not confined to just one creator-size category. However, these figures describe the creators and launch periods included in the analysis; they do not guarantee that every channel will see the same outcome.
Creator performance distribution shift for Borderlands. Image credit: Gamesight.
What the results mean for creators and publishers
Across four franchises, sequel streams generally brought stronger relative viewership, while Death Stranding was the only franchise in the study to decline, with an 11-percentage-point drop in its ACV change. This difference is a reminder that results can vary by game and audience. Creators can use their own recent non-franchise streams as a comparison point, while publishers can assess performance across a broad group of channels rather than assuming that past franchise results will repeat.
Definitions and metrics
- Average concurrent viewers (ACV): Total viewer seconds divided by total stream duration in seconds. This measures live viewership during a stream.
- Relative performance versus baseline: (Game ACV − Other Content ACV) / Other Content ACV × 100. “Other Content” means a creator’s non-franchise streams during the same time window. A result of +15% means the game averaged 15% more viewers than that creator’s typical content.
- Improvement: Calculated in percentage points by subtracting the original game’s relative performance from the sequel’s. For example, a change from +10% to +25% is a 15-percentage-point improvement.
- Creator segments: Based on baseline ACV during the sequel’s first 30 days: micro, under 100; mid, 100–1,000; large, 1,000–10,000; and mega, 10,000 or more.
Conclusion: game sequels can renew creator interest
In this Twitch analysis, game sequels outperformed their predecessors relative to creator baselines in most of the franchises studied, with gains spanning every creator-size tier. The results do not mean every sequel will attract a larger audience, but they challenge the assumption that franchise fatigue is inevitable. Creators and publishers can make more grounded decisions by comparing sequel performance with creators’ usual viewership and accounting for differences between individual games.
