Darwin Project Closing in on Fornite in Twitch Views

Everyone and their brother and mother and cousin and auntie and mailman is playing Fortnite these days. It has in many ways taken over the zeitgeist in a way no game has in a long time. Therefore, it should be no surprise it has been dominating Twitch in terms of views. But its streak of unchallenged supremacy may be coming to an end. The challenger? Darwin Project, a debut game from a little Canadian team called Scavengers Studio.

According to a recent look at the top games on Twitch in terms of views, Fortnite is still king with a healthy 216,204 viewers. But not far behind it is Darwin Project with 206,647. You can see the ranking for yourself below (courtesy of ResetEra user Nirolak):

As you can see, Darwin Project is less than 16,000 viewers behind Fortnite, which seems like a lot, but when you're dealing with numbers over 200,000, isn't that much. Whether it will pass Fortnite anytime soon, well it's hard to say. Fortnite is certainly sucking up all the air in the industry and dipping into the mainstream in a way no other game is at the moment, but Darwin Project is gaining steam and attention, and it may very well end up in the "next big thing" stratosphere. As the cliche goes, only time will tell.

So what is this game that came seemingly out of nowhere? Well, first announced during E3 2017, Darwin Project is a battle royale survival game centered around the idea of "manhunt." In their path to victory, a player must survive extreme environmental conditions, track opponents, and set traps if they want to come out on top.

The game takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic landscape in the Northern Canadian Rockies. In preparation for an imminent Ice Age, a new project, half science experiment half live-entertainment, is launched. It's appropriately called the Darwin Project, and challenges brave participants to survive the cold and fight to the death in a treacherous arena until they are on the last ones standing.

Darwin Project is currently available on PC and Xbox One via Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, respectively. There is currently no word when a full release will come.