XDefiant Beta surpasses Call of Duty on Twitch
XDefiant's Closed Beta run is already usurping Call of Duty on Twitch, as the shooter series gets off to a flying start.
17th Apr 2023 10:52
Ubisoft | Infinity Ward
XDefiant Beta surpasses Call of Duty on Twitch
XDefiant's Closed Beta run is already usurping Call of Duty on Twitch, as the shooter series gets off to a flying start.
17th Apr 2023 10:52
Ubisoft | Infinity Ward
Having recently been dubbed as the Call of Duty 'killer', XDefiant is already usurping the colossal arcade shooter franchise, and it seems like fans are buying into the hype.
With Call of Duty (outside of the Ranked community) absolutely capitulating, there's a wealth of games in development that are looking to pick up the broken pieces to carry the shooter genre into a new dawn.
The first one up is XDefiant, and although it still remains in its Closed Beta status, the bright and prosperous title is already overtaking its biggest competitor.
XDefiant has overtaken Call of Duty on Twitch
After a few hours online, XDefiant surpassed Call of Duty in terms of viewership on Twitch, with Ubisoft's new title rising above the combined tally between Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.
Of course, these numbers were inflated somewhat by the Beta code drops given out to content creators, but XDefiant has persisted at a higher viewership count than Modern Warfare 2 (during non-CDL times) and nearly matches Warzone at most concurrent times.
Call of Duty soon took control again, as the Call of Duty League went live and attracted the 100,000 wedge that comes with the mainstream and Scump's co-stream. Still, it goes to show that the CoD fanbase wants more, and around half of the loyalists are prepared to try something new.
Ubisoft Producer believes XDefiant is a 'different era of CoD'
The attraction to XDefiant is evident within the Call of Duty fan base, and it's clear to see why, as previous Infinity Ward exec Mark Rubin has confessed that his former Call of Duty influence has seeped into XDefiant.
With similarities in gunplay, movement, and graphics to some of Rubin's CoD projects like Modern Warfare 2 (2009), the now Executive Producer for XDefiant has claimed (via Twitter) the Ubisoft game is "a love story to a different era of CoD".
Rubin's comments cement that this is where the CoD franchise could have ended up, but instead, its battle royale and microtransaction-centric philosophies have resulted in a usurper rising from the ground up to steal its fans. And they are doing...
About The Author
Jack Marsh
Jack is an Esports Journalist at GGRecon. Graduating from the University of Chester, with a BA Honours degree in Journalism, Jack is an avid esports enthusiast and specialises in Rocket League, Call of Duty, VALORANT, and trending gaming news.
