Released recently on 20th June, Crash Team Rumble (CTR) has had a less than stellar opening performance. The 4v4 multiplayer spinoff of the beloved Crash Bandicoot franchise, this instalment is far from a hit on streaming platform Twitch.
As of writing, CTR has a mere 19 viewers on Twitch, falling even lower than the 30-40 viewers previously recorded by Video Gamer.
The stats site Twitch Tracker recorded an average of 316 viewers over the last seven days, with even this number falling significantly short of its 12, 174 peak viewership figure. For an online multiplayer game, this doesn't bode well for the popularity or longevity of its player base, especially for a product from an established franchise which should have a loyal, existing fanbase.
Other recent releases are performing significantly better. Formula 1 23 has an average viewership of 4,714, far outclassing CTR, but even this is far off the titanic Final Fantasy XVI average viewership, which stands at 50,605.
CTR's creative director Dan Neil, speaking to VGC, said: "As a developer, even though they weren't live service games, in the past Activision has had an expectation that things are done, done to quality, and done on time, so they can hit their mark and their season.
"Skylanders, for example, people want to unwrap those toys for Christmas, so we couldn't miss that. Where I'm going with this is, as a developer, we're very used to having to hit our mark. So we're planning into the future, knowing we need to hit our mark.
CTR's lack of accessibility on PC could be holding it back, as it is currently only playable on last and current generation Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Potentially, moves such as an import to PC are the kind of future-proofing and development Neil is referring to, but only time will tell, and Crash Team Rumble may not have much left.