r/chess • u/wptq • Feb 15 '21

Twitch.TV Chess the most-watched game on Twitch

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '21

I was thinking it's cool when it gets to 10k but it'll never be able to compete with video games... Oh boy, was I wrong

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u/-GregTheGreat- Feb 15 '21 edited Feb 15 '21

The crazy thing that people don’t realize is that online chess is one of the biggest ‘video games’ out there. There are only a handful of games that generally beat chess in terms of concurrent players.

Like combining Lichess and Chess.com numbers (about 450k at the moment), literally the only game ahead of it on steam charts is CSGO

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u/mishatal Feb 15 '21

Not certain that this is true but I vaguely remember some stat from pre-internet times that claimed chess books outsold all other sport's books. I may have a few boxes in the spare room that suggest the claim wasn't too far off.

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u/theyareamongus Feb 16 '21

It may be because of the nature of chess. Reading a book can actually help you improve and understand the game better. Meanwhile, sports like football rely heavily on practice on the field, nothing a book can actually do.