Amazon has recently rebranded its gaming service that comes with Prime membership. Twitch Prime is now Prime Gaming. With Prime Gaming, the Prime membership is now a complete package that also includes unlimited streaming of video content such as movies and web series, unlimited online and offline music on Prime Music, and Prime Reading for ebooks, digital magazines, and much more. For people who are unfamiliar with Twitch Prime gaming, it contains a series of assistances that are gaming-related for Amazon Prime subscribers. These include free games for PC, a free monthly Twitch subscription to help you support the steamer of your choice, and exclusive in-game content. With the rebranding, none of these perks are being taken away. They however are under the Prime Gaming banner now.
When Mike Frazzini was appointed to lead the Gaming section of Amazon he hired few big names in the gaming industry which now seems to be showing its results. It is rumored that Frazzini insists on using Amazon’s development tools in creating any game. ‘Crucible’ was Amazon’s first major title which was realized in May but returned to beta just after a month. In its gaming from Amazon sure have had a rough year but didn’t we all. Let us see how the rebranding works for them.
On June 6, 2011, Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, and Michael launched TwitchTv officially in a public beta. And it was since then that the site attracted millions of unique visitors every month and by 2013 TwitchTv already had about 80 employees working for it. Let us look at the trends of the site since its launch to understand how Twitch changed how the world looks at Gamers.
2012
It is difficult to fetch the data from this time for individual games however at the beginning of December 2012, Twitch started its blog and we could gather some data from it. Below are the top 10 games that were trending during this time:
- League of Legends
- StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
- World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
- Dota 2
- Minecraft
- Call of Duty Black Ops 2
- Diablo III
- Heroes of Newerth
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- The War Z
Some of these proved to be the best recipe for their success even for the next decade.
2013
Twitch continued to update the blog that they created in 2012 even during 2013 and after a close inspection at the data, we can gather that the below games were still in the top 5 list with an addition of some new.
- League of Legends (1.00)
- Dota 2 (2.11)
- Starcraft 2 (3.00)
- World of Warcraft (4.22)
- Minecraft (6.33)
In 2013, Twitch organized an event called the League of Legends World Championship and millions of people attended this event online and also there was a huge crowd even directly at the venue. The League of Legends (LoL) still proves to be a huge event for Twitch.
2014
In 2014 the blog was updated with details for only six months and with whatever could be gathered below are the list of the top games:
- League of Legends
- Dota 2
- Hearthstone
- CS: GO
- Minecraft
- World of Warcraft
- Starcraft 2
In August 2013, Twitch released Heartstone in beta and it was already in the top 5 since then, however, this was released for the public in March 2014 following its huge demand. Starcraft 2 also was on the popular list as soon as it was released in Beta and it is believed that Twitch rose to the fame that it did because of Starcraft 2. However, its decline began in 2014 and continues to date.
2015
In 2014 Amazon bought the gaming platform for just $1 billion and by 2015 it had reached some different level. It was an absolute steal for both. With this acquisition, things shuffled to life within and newfound attention was being received by Twitch. It was getting publications into writing about its games and numbers and by such a site we get the list of our top games for 2015 and they are:
- League of Legends
- CS: GO
- Dota 2
- Hearthstone
- Minecraft
- H1Z1
- Destiny
- World of Tanks
- World of Warcraft
- FIFA 15
Though the top five continues to be the same ones from 2014 however, the ones that come after the top five are the ones that shake the peak for Twitch. H1Z1 was launched with a bug that definitely wasn’t intentional but it surely sold over a million copies during the end of 2015. However, some of the games here are largely played and made the popular game even today.
2016
The top five list looks a little different for a few games as even though it was late it arrived at its destination. The list looks as below:
- League of Legends
- CS: GO
- Dota 2
- Hearthstone
- Overwatch
2017
H1Z1 was segmented in 2017 into two sides and Z1 Battle Royale proved to be an official competition to the creator’s original title. The titles that topped the list are as below:
- League of Legends
- PlayerUnknowns: Battlegrounds (PUBG)
- Dota 2
- Hearthstone
- CS: GO
- Overwatch
- IRL
- World of Warcraft
- GTA V
- Z1 Battle Royale
- Fortnite
On 11th, we say a name that did not even have a true name the year before. It was released in July 2017 and it was watched widely and this is what made it make it to the list. In 2018 it made into public consciousness after a Fortnite stream of The Ninja, Drake, Juju Smith-Schuster, and Travis Scott Fortnite.
2018
The 2018 list was made up of most of the already seen names but Fornite being the top in the list just after being releases the previous year was a surprise. The list is as below:
- Fortnite
- League of Legends
- Dota 2
- PUBG
- CS: GO
- Hearthstone
- IRL
- Overwatch
- World of Warcraft
- Grand Theft Auto V
For the first time since its start, League of Legends is seen not leading the list and it is unsettling for the fans in so many ways, only to be back to the top the next year. However, for a year Fortnite broke records that it never imagined it could. Many of the star faces of Twitch are recognized after the record-breaking outburst of Fortnite and the esports scene flourished.
2019
Although Fortnite remained in the top 5 list this year we see the legend crawling back to its original position. The list looks like the list for the year for the top five:
- League of Legends
- Fortnite
- Just Chatting
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Dota 2
2020
This year the most obvious history for LoL did not recreate itself but a lesser-known one did. This year again a new game took over the top position placing League of Legends in the second position. The list is as below:
- Just Chatting
- League of Legends
- Fortnite
- GTA V
- VALORANT
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- CS: GO
- Minecraft
- Dota 2
- World of Warcraft
Just Chatting topping the list is rumored to be the consequence of the pandemic as it offered interaction and in a year that was all about isolation, the interactions were the need of the hour. As and soon as the situations are back to normal we could be seeing League of Legends making it to the top again. However, the bigger leap for the year 2021 was the rebranding for the platform to Prime Gaming and we are yet to witness if this impacts the placing of the top list in any way.
