Amazon's Crucible isn't off to a great start. The free-to-play MOBA/hero shooter launched last week without any fanfare, barely making a dent on the Steam charts. As the player count continues to stagnate under 3,000 concurrent, we have to wonder why Amazon isn't using their own platform to promote the game.
Crucible currently has less than 1,000 viewers on Twitch. Just one week after launch, the game has about as many viewers as Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver, Cuphead, and Final Fantasy IX. It's currently the 215th most popular game on Steam behind They Are Billions and Realm Royale. Crucible isn't perfect, but it certainly isn't a disaster that should be getting completely overlooked like this. The biggest problem I've seen from watching the reaction online is that no one is even aware that the game exists. As the owners of the largest video game streaming platform, everyone should have heard of Crucible at this point, but it seems like that isn't the case.
Last year, Apex Legends was officially announced and released on the same day with the support of just about every top streamer on Twitch. Ninja, Shroud, Dr Disrespect, and many others played Apex Legends almost exclusively for the first week. While this surely cost EA millions in sponsorships, the boost it gave to the game is undeniable. Apex Legends amassed 50 million players in its first month, breaking the record set by Fortnite for the biggest launch.
Crucible had barely a handful of prominent streamers playing the game on day 1. TimtheTatman and Dr. Lupo were sponsored to play the game the first day but moved on immediately after. The game had virtually no presence among the platform's top streamers.
Another way Twitch helps to promote games is through Twitch Prime Drops. These are typically cosmetic freebies that are given away to Twitch Prime members. Games like Destiny 2, Apex Legends and League of Legends use monthly drops to give away skins and renew interest in the game. Amazon did nothing for Crucible. There are no Prime Drops available for the game (despite the cosmetics in Crucible actually being pretty good) and there wasn't even a banner on the Twitch homepage to advertise the game when it came out.
If you follow Crucible on Twitter or join their Discord, you'll see that the development team is pushing out patches daily. The developers have been very active on social media since the game launches and it's clear that the game is in active development. The players the game does have seem enthusiastic about the game and the small community is very active. Why isn't Amazon doing anything to help this game find a sustainable player base?
Maybe Amazon is treating Crucible like an early access title even though it doesn't have that designation on Steam. Perhaps they have a big promotional push planned at some future date when there is a major update to the game to show off. It's hard to imagine what could help Crucible find an audience at this point, but considering how lousy Amazon has been at promoting the game, it's really no surprise.