Heroes of the Storm’s struggles continue to grow, as Twitch viewership for the MOBA has dropped by nearly half over the past two months. The situation shouldn’t be too surprising given Blizzard’s sudden Decemberdecision to end the esports leagueforHeroes of the Stormand scale back overall support of the game’s development. Nevertheless, Blizzard’s lack of faith inHeroes of the Stormmay ultimately prove a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the community around the game continues to transition to games with more reliable backing.
According to Invent Global,Twitchviewership forHeroes of the Stormduring December 2018 averaged just over 4,000 viewers at any given moment. Not an overly impressive number, but somewhat understandable given it was the esports off-season, and December is traditionally a seasonal low point for Twitch viewership. Of course, December was also when Blizzard announced itsHeroes of the Stormcuts, so viewership that month was already being affected.
As of January 2019, Twitch viewership forHeroes of the Stormdramatically dropped to just over 2,700. The drop can be attributed both to the several of the MOBA’s most popular streamers switching games and general viewership for the game continuing to shrink. As of February, that viewership average is now closer to 2,250. In less than two months,Heroes of the StormTwitch viewership is half of what it was and is unlikely to climb out of its off-season lull.
A more specific example ofHeroes of the Storm’s troubles would be in comparingtournament viewership. The Gold Series Heroes League for Season 3 sported over 4,400 viewers outside of China in July 2018. The most recentHeroes of the Stormtournament, the Toasty & Gladman Heroes Invitation hosted by Tempo Storm, managed just over 1,400 viewers on Twitch. To be fair, the scale of tournaments is slanted, but withHeroes' future tournament schedule uncertain there may no longer be any better or more reliable opportunities for comparison.
