MMORPG Guild Wars 2 really wanted to take off with Steam launch and Twitch drops – did it work?

After 10 years, the popular MMORPG Guild Wars 2 finally came to Steam on 08/23/2022. At the same time, there were twitch drops to boost viewership in streaming. Some promised new players for the popular MMORPG from the launch on the PC platform. At MeinMMO we look at how the Steam reviews, the number of players and the number of viewers on Twitch look after 3 days.

This is the situation:

• The MMORPG started in Europe on August 28, 2012 – with its own launcher
• 10 years later, on August 23rd, the MMORPG came to Steam. As you know, German players in particular love Guild Wars 2.
• The basic version of Guild Wars 2 is free on Steam. In our opinion, the free basic version has been one of the best Free2Play MMOPRGs for years. However, the game now offers numerous expansions, if you want the complete package with 2 expansions and the living world, you pay €99.97.

Guild Wars 2 is one of the most popular German MMORPGs:

Longtime fans are promoting Guild Wars 2 on Steam

How are the reviews? Guild Wars 2 has 85% positive reviews after 3 days and is rated as “very positive.”

It was commented on by many who are longtime fans of Guild Wars 2 and wholeheartedly recommend the game to others:

• The horizontal progression is praised for not requiring an endless grind
• The advancement of Guild Wars 2 is praised
• The community is highlighted as helpful

A player gives beginners extensive tips and tricks in his review, so they should stay away from loot boxes and preferably use a PC with a strong CPU.

Player new to Guild Wars 2 feels intimidated by max level heroes

There are also negative reviews? Yes, there are.

A user who was really starting out quickly lost interest in Guild Wars 2, because shortly after the start he encountered max-level characters on flight mounts that glowed like a disco ball.

The Steam user says he is very dissatisfied with his first few hours in the game, preferring to play alone or with people in his level.

Another Steam user complained that he looked back at Guild Wars 2 after 10 years and was appalled by the game’s graphics today. Guild Wars 1 was nicer there.

A third user says: The positive reviews would be promoted by reddit to Guild Wars 2 (via reddit): That’s why so many players would write positive reviews despite playing the Steam version for such a short time. But he himself has criticized the further development of the title for several years.

How does the player count on Steam compare to other MMORPGs?

What are the player numbers? The number of players on Steam is modest. You get a peak of 5,510 players for the release. Ultimately, this will probably not create a large vortex. This is bitter because Guild Wars 2 also wanted to heat up the Steam launch with additional promotional campaigns.

Comparable MMORPGs such as ESO (13,697), Black Desert (14,795) and Final Fantasy XIV (26,376) have, on average, many times the number of players that Guild Wars 2 reached at its peak for the Steam release. World of Warcraft is not playable on Steam. Lost Ark, only playable via Steam, has a whole different dimension on Steam with 177,599 players.

Also, looking at the reviews, it’s noticeable that many Steam users who say they’ve clocked up thousands of hours in-game actually spent just a few minutes on the Steam version of Guild Wars 2. You probably just keep playing in the normal client.

Reached nearly 50,000 viewers via Twitch Drops

Here’s how it works on Twitch: On Twitch, a short-term hype was achieved with the Steam release and accompanying Twitch drops: 49,945 viewers watched at the peak, but such hypes through Twitch gifts are not sustainable. The number of viewers has already more than halved after a few days.

• The peak of 49,943 viewers on August 23 was huge compared to August 22, which peaked at just 2,394 viewers
• But as early as August 25, the peak was only 23,423 simultaneous viewers
• The number is likely to continue to fall rapidly in the coming days

The biggest streamers on Twitch weren’t “new streamers,” but regular Guild Wars 2 streamers like Mukluk or MightyTeapot, who just got a lot more viewers than usual.

In Germany, the fan page “GuildNews” reached a peak of 1,416 simultaneous viewers on Twitch (via sullygnome).

The goal for ArenaNet to once again show a presence on Twitch has certainly been achieved with the Twitch Drops.

The Twitch Drops will run from August 23rd to August 28th. If you want to dust off all the prizes, you must have 10 hours of Twitch running: (via

That’s behind it: It’s likely that “new players” in this version of Guild Wars 2 lack the experience of starting out on an entirely new server. Such a “fresh start” server would have been valuable for a major Steam release, but it doesn’t really fit well with Guild Wars 2’s server structure.

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