Open-world games lean upon unique settings to captivate gamers. The world of SAND LAND charms the player with its cartoonish violence and vibrant characters, all while instilling a certain melancholy as their antics ring out across the desert’s expanse.
With the unfortunate passing of Akira Toriyama in March of this year, this poignant humor of his was sorely needed by fans. Toriyama created the SAND LAND manga back in 2000, but it was recently adapted into an anime series earlier this year putting it back in the public’s mind. The game covers the story of these previous works whilst pushing the world of SAND LAND one step further. As an open-world action RPG with town-building, platforming, and vehicular combat, SAND LAND’s gameplay may feel scattered. But the upbeat attitude of the characters and the game’s goofy sensibilities tie these disparate elements together.
It’s worth looking at how fans have taken to the game that links Toriyama’s legacy with one of the most popular genres on live-streaming.
SAND LAND Holds Steady on Streaming Platforms Following its Debut
Following SAND LAND’s worldwide release on the 26th of April, viewers flocked to see if the game lived up to the legacy of its creator. SAND LAND reached 120K hours watched on the first day of its release, primarily being watched on Twitch. However, the game actually had a couple of earlier starts due to a staggered release schedule. The full game was initially released exclusively in Japan on the 25th of April, explaining the 36K hours watched on this day.
The game also had a couple of factors that built up momentum ahead of the game’s release. The aforementioned anime release in March of this year created hype for the new game in a similar fashion to other transmedia adaptations such as Fallout. A more tangible hook came in the form of a playable demo, which was released on the 18th of April. This came a week before the full game’s release in Japan, in which time the game saw 43K hours watched on streaming platforms.
Chzzk’s 풍월량 and Twitch’s CohhCarnage Are the Top SAND LAND Streamers
The bulk of this demo viewership came from 풍월량 (Poong Wol-ryang), a famous Korean Chzzk streamer who recently pulled in big numbers for his Dragon’s Dogma 2 streams. 풍월량 generated 41K hours watched with just a single four-hour stream of SAND LAND. The top English-speaking streamer was CohhCarnage, pulling in 30K hours watched and proving, once again, his love for all types of RPGs (as recently seen with his mega-popular streams of Baldur’s Gate 3).
Toriyama’s work has a global appeal, as represented by the diverse array of talent covering the game. The top streamers consist of Korean, English, French, Chinese, and Portuguese speakers. This turnout for SAND LAND, a game that might otherwise have flown under the radar, is a testament to the enduring popularity of Toriyama’s character designs and world building.
It remains to be seen if SAND LAND will capture the hearts of players moving forward. With plenty of room to expand into with further updates of DLC, Stream Hatchet will be watching to see how the game performs.
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