Hytale Becomes the Most-Watched Game on Twitch on Early Access Launch Day

The long-awaited voxel sandbox Hytale has officially launched into early access, immediately becoming the most-watched game on Twitch with over 420,000 concurrent viewers. After a decade of development, a cancellation, and a dramatic last-minute resurrection, hundreds of thousands of players have finally got their hands on what many hope will be the first true Minecraft competitor.

Launch day arrived on 13th January 2026, slightly ahead of the originally planned schedule. Within hours, Hytale attracted over 420,000 viewers across thousands of streams , pushing it to the top of Twitch's leaderboard. This is rare territory for newly launched titles, especially indie projects.

The numbers tell a remarkable story of community loyalty. Pre-orders alone secured funding for the next two years of development, with studio founder Simon Collins-Laflamme announcing yesterday that the game was "saved" before it even went live.

Ten Years in the Making

Hytale's journey reads like a Hollywood script. Work began in 2015 when the team behind the massively popular Hypixel Minecraft server decided to build their own game. The 2018 announcement trailer exploded online, racking up over 61 million views and making it one of the most-watched game reveals in history.

Then Riot Games stepped in. The League of Legends publisher acquired Hypixel Studios in 2020, promising resources and stability. Players expected greatness.

Instead, they got silence. Years passed with minimal updates. Behind the scenes, the studio was rebuilding the entire game engine. Four years of engineering went into rebuilding the engine rather than gameplay features , Collins-Laflamme revealed last month.

The worst fears came true in June 2025 when Riot cancelled the project entirely. Development costs had exceeded $100 million with no clear completion path. Hypixel Studios was dissolved. The game appeared dead.

The Miracle Buyback

But Collins-Laflamme wasn't ready to let his creation die. The original Hypixel founder, who had stepped away from the project years earlier, immediately began negotiations to buy back the IP rights. He offered what he later described as "10x what the true market value" of Hytale would be.

In November 2025, the deal went through. Collins-Laflamme and co-founder Philippe Touchette reacquired Hytale, immediately rehiring over 40 former developers and pledging personal funding for the next decade.

The team faced a daunting challenge. When Collins-Laflamme regained control, the game was "barely playable" and all the game's basic systems were broken: "Camera, movement, combat, crafting, building, gameloop, sounds, rendering. Everything, everything was wrong."

They had weeks to make it work.

Bears, Bugs, and Brutal Honesty

The team abandoned Riot's unfinished engine rewrite and reverted to the four-year-old "legacy build" from the original 2018 trailer. They merged over 300 GitHub branches into a single working version. Within weeks, they transformed a broken prototype into something playable.

Collins-Laflamme maintained brutal honesty with the community throughout. He repeatedly warned that Hytale "isn't good yet" and described the early access launch as "messy" and "janky." The price was set at just $19.99 because, in his words, charging more "didn't feel right."

That transparency seems to have paid off. Players knew exactly what they were getting. Launch streams show exactly that: rough edges, unpolished systems, and plenty of bugs. Many day one players are being brutally savaged by the bears roaming Hytale's forests , according to reports.

But the community doesn't seem to mind. They've waited ten years. A few bugs and angry wildlife won't stop them now.

What's Available Right Now

The early access build includes exploration mode, creative mode, and full modding support. Players can craft items, build structures, and explore procedurally generated worlds filled with diverse biomes and creatures.

Adventure mode, minigames, and deeper narrative elements are coming later. Hypixel Studios estimates the early access period will last "at least a few years."

The game is currently Windows-only, available exclusively through the official Hytale launcher. Mac and Linux versions might arrive eventually, whilst console ports are planned for "much later."

The #SaveHytale Movement

The community played a crucial role in this resurrection. When Riot announced the cancellation, fans immediately mobilised. Petitions circulated. One 18-year-old fan wrote: "I have been following Hytale religiously since the trailer came out, I was 11 at the time. I'm now 18 and I feel like I've lost a piece of my childhood."

That sentiment resonated across social media. The #SaveHytale movement gained momentum, ultimately convincing Collins-Laflamme to make his buyback offer. Yesterday, developers celebrated on social media, with one writing: "Going to bed knowing tomorrow we get to press the button we've waited 10 years to push."

Music and sound designer Oscar Garvin shared similar sentiments: "On Feb 1st I'll have worked on Hytale for 10 years, together with many of my talented colleagues. It's difficult to find the words right now, but I'm excited."

Can Anything Dethrone Minecraft?

The elephant in every virtual room is obvious. Minecraft has dominated the sandbox genre for over a decade. It's impossible to say whether Hytale will genuinely compete, let alone win.

But the initial signs look promising. The blend of block-building mechanics with deeper RPG elements creates something distinct. The modding tools appear robust, with one level designer demonstrating a fully functional 2D side-scroller built entirely within the game.

Most importantly, Hytale has something Minecraft never needed: a fiercely loyal community that fought to save it. That kind of passion doesn't guarantee success, but it's a hell of a foundation.

Early reports suggest server infrastructure is holding up well despite the massive player influx. Hypixel Studios predicted over one million players at launch. Account verification emails are delayed for some users, but overall stability appears solid.

The decade of development, the near-fatal cancellation, and the dramatic buyback have forged something special. Whether it's "good" yet is debatable. Whether it matters to the community is not.

Hytale is home. Finally.