V Rising combines two of the most popular genres on live-streaming platforms: Survival games and Action RPGs. The 3D isometric view and UI echo Action RPGs like Diablo IV and Path of Exile, while the gameplay itself features crafting and resource management reminiscent of Rust or Palworld. Developer Stunlock Studios is no doubt hoping to reap the rewards of this star combination by appealing to streamers of both genres.
Certainly, the strategy worked when the game was released into early access in May of 2022. Streamers took to the vampire-themed game world with fervor, excited to play a more casual survival experience. But with the game having been fully released now in May of 2024, has this hype endured the two-year span in-between?
V Rising’s Full Release Sees Less Than Half of the Popularity of its Early Access
V Rising’s early access was a smash hit on live-streaming platforms. In the first two weeks of early access, V Rising content garnered 20.4M hours watched. This immediate surge of interest proved the game’s premise was intriguing to viewers. Streamers agreed, with 32.5K unique channels covering the game upon release. This flood of interest led to 3.9M sales of V Rising by February of 2024 – a staggering number for an indie game, putting its performance close to that of other survival games like The Forest which has sold 5.3M copies.
But a premise is not enough to ensure a game’s continued popularity. For the interested onlookers who watched V Rising in early access, many failed to return for the game’s full release. For the first two weeks of V Rising’s full release, only 9.2M hours were watched – just 45% of the early access viewership. This is still an impressive amount, but nowhere close to the numbers expected. It could be that players weren’t impressed enough with the gameplay to return to the title, or that two years was too long to sustain interest. What is clear is that it was not just viewers who lost interest: Creators did as well. Only 15.7K unique channels covered V Rising’s full release, suggesting that many who jumped on the early access bandwagon later abandoned the game.
Ultimately, V Rising may have been a victim of a saturated market. Action RPGs have proliferated in the last few months, with many performing exceptionally as recently as April of 2024. To the layman scanning through screenshots of gameplay, V Rising looks to be yet another Action RPG. To stand out and reclaim viewer interest, Stunlock Studios may need to create more community events to pull viewers onto live-streaming platforms and showcase the game’s unique blend of survival and action gameplay.
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