Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 sees 34m hours of Twitch viewership during launch week

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 saw a strong opening, with record launch-day digital sales for an Activision title as it also became the fastest-selling digital game in PlayStation history. But people weren't just playing Black Ops 4 during its first week - many were also watching it.

Livestream viewership data platform Gamoloco tweeted today that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 saw 34 million hours of Twitch viewership during its first seven days after release. That marks a more than 270% increase in viewership from its predecessors.

Call of Duty: WWII, launched in 2015, saw 9 million hours watched during the same period after launch - about even with Black Ops III two years earlier. Modern Warfare, sandwiched between the two, was much lower at only 4 million hours.

Gamoloco attributes this to a number of factors in follow-up tweets, but says the presence of the game's battle royale mode was "the only true notable difference" between Black Ops 4 and previous entries, noting that the top Twitch channels streaming Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 last month were all prominent players of battle royale games, such as Shroud, DrDisrespect, and Ninja.