Half-Life: Alyx is available now on Steam, but there are far more people watching the game being played on Twitch than are actually playing it. Valve announced that Half-Life: Alyx would be a VR title back in 2019, which instantly restricted the number of people who could play the game.
Half-Life: Alyx is the first new Half-Life title since Half-Life: Episode 2 back in 2007, assuming you don’t count Black Mesa, the recent fan remake of Half-Life that was released after being in development for fifteen years. As such, expectations for Half-Life: Alyx are sky-high. The reviews for the game are starting to be released and it seems that Half-Life: Alyx is living up its hype.
It seems that all of the hype in the world isn’t equal to the price of an expensive VR headset. Valve has had trouble keeping Index headsets in stock, but there are far more people watching people play Half-Life: Alyx on Twitch than are actually playing the game. Mat Piscatella initially reported on Twitter that Half-Life: Alyx had nineteen thousand players, in comparison to two hundred and thirty-eight thousand viewers on Twitch. The Steam tracker has since been updated and the game has reached over forty-two thousand players, but there is still a huge gap in the number of players versus viewers.
It should be pointed out that these numbers are more impressive than some other highly acclaimed games. According to Gamespot, titles like Doom only reached a little over thirty-one thousand concurrent players in the same timeframe, while Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus only reached over sixteen thousand. These numbers might not be impressive for a new Half-Life title, but they are when you consider the expensive barrier to entry.
Valve saw a surge of interest in the Index after the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx, but these kits are expensive. Half-Life: Alyx is compatible with a number of different VR headsets, but none of them are cheap, It’s no surprise that so many people are checking out Half-Life: Alyx on platforms like Twitch, as they want to know if the game is worth the hype before they spend hundreds of dollars on hardware. VR gaming has needed one huge title to sell the concept to the world and Half-Life: Alyx has the potential to be that game, but there are clearly still lots of people who need convincing.
Half-Life: Alyx is available now on Steam.
