Loop Hero takes over Twitch and Steam with incredible launch

A new game is starting to take over the gaming world. Despite coming out just a few days ago on March 4, Loop Hero is already a hugely popular game, becoming one of the most-watched on Twitch and already entering the top sellers' list on Steam. 

Coming from Four Quarters, a small indie dev team, the game seems well on its way to making a triple-A splash as its very impressive start continues. Let’s take a look at the game and some of the numbers behind its incredibly successful launch. 

What is Loop Hero?

Loop Hero is an all-new Roguelike deckbuilding Role Playing Game, played in a charming pixel art style. If you’ve heard of games like Slay the Spire then you’ll have an idea of what Loop Hero is, although there are a few things that make it unique. 

In Loop Hero, rather than controlling the hero, the players control the world. This includes things like town-building, dungeon building, and generally pushing the hero in a specific direction without directly controlling them.

General gameplay includes building a level, which the player’s hero then follows, adding in specific enemy encounters and attempting to level the hero until they can defeat a final boss. There’s quite a lot to it, but when it comes to the recently popular Roguelike deck-building RPG genre, Loop Hero brings a lot of unique elements that give it an edge. 

Thanks to its innovative ideas, Loop Hero can already be considered a success and it’s just begun its journey in the gaming world. Let’s take a look how Loop Hero’s first week is faring so far. 

Loop Hero’s impressive Twitch and Steam launch numbers

Loop Hero has become an instant hit in the gaming world and it shows, especially when looking at two of the biggest platforms out there - Twitch and Steam. 

The most impressive thing about the game by far is it’s Twitch numbers. Despite releasing mid-week on March 4, the game has seen huge success on Twitch, becoming the fourth most-watched game from March 1 to March 8 with 2.8 Million watch hours in just five days.

In comparison, the top three, Rust, GTA 5, and Valorant see 7.7 Million, 4.8 Million, and 3.5 Million respectively while covering all seven days. This means, we’ll likely see Loop Hero take the number two spot in a few days and if it can keep up the momentum, it may even reach the top spot. 

Surprisingly enough, the game doesn’t seem to be a “victim” of a popularity spike. It’s seen fewer streamers than Valorant and Rust, and the viewership peak on one channel is only 57,805 - meaning it’s not just a few of the biggest streamers throwing in giant numbers. 

In fact, Twitch’s biggest names like xQc, Summit1g, Shroud, etc. have yet to touch the game, showing just how much more potential for growth it has once the biggest stars get to it. Still, streamers are having huge success streaming the game and have been raking in some massive numbers. 

(Some of the biggest Loop Hero streamers - via Lurkit)

Meanwhile, when it comes to Steam Loop Hero is also no joke. The game is starting to boom on the platform, and has already drawn in some strong numbers, including a spot on the top sales chart. Let’s take a look at some of these numbers:

• Over 3 Million Hours Played in just four days
• Over 51,000 Concurrent Players peak 
• Average of 45,000 Concurrent Players - placing it around #15 on Steam's top games

The most impressive thing here is no doubt the hours played. In just four days, over 3 Million hours have been played, which when compared to other games makes it an absolute titan on Steam. If Loop Hero continues at its current pace it could reach 78 Million hours played in a month, placing it just outside the top six and overtaking GTA 5.

Of course, that’s only if it continues its current pace - Loop Hero has real potential to keep on growing and while it likely won't challenge the likes of CSGO and Dota, it may find a spot in the top 5 steam games, at least for March. 

What made Loop Hero’s launch successful?

Unlike most games that dominate Twitch and Steam on launch, Loop Hero isn’t backed by a triple-A studio capable of pumping out millions for promotions, influencer campaigns, and other marketing tools. 

The biggest Twitch stars weren't hired to play the game on Twitch as it was released and it’s still remained fairly unmentioned by most of the big names. Even the game’s publisher, Devolver Digital, haven’t been pushing the game too much. We’ve seen the usual reviews by the likes of PC Gamer, some retweets here and there, but it has all remained fairly quiet. 

Loop Hero’s popularity can largely be attributed to it being a good game and capitalizing on one of the most powerful marketing methods - word of mouth. 

In the few days, the game has been on Twitch and Steam, its launch day has actually been one of the weaker days. It would seem that all it took was a few streamers playing the game and a few Roguelike fans finding out about it and telling their friends how awesome it is to kick off a wave of hype. The game continues to trend upwards, especially on Steam, and we are very likely to see a very strong month for Loop Hero. 

Sometimes it doesn’t take millions in marketing for a successful launch, just a genuinely good game and fans willing to share the love.