This morning I stumbled across a news article and I was surprised. Did you know that the biggest event in ARK is currently taking place without you having heard about it? And it’s not the first time, because ARK is celebrating huge successes without us even noticing. But let’s start from the beginning, so you know what I’m talking about.
Remember in 2021 when everyone started playing Rust or Among us in the middle of the pandemic? That happened not only in the German-speaking world but also in the English-speaking world before that. The same hype wave is now also happening in Japan with the game ARK.
The Japanese gaming community Vaultroom organised the whole thing, found sponsors in advance and some of Japan’s biggest content creators to hype this event to the skies.
Looking at Japan’s most watched streamers at the moment, ARK is simply everywhere.
In the announcement video released a few days ago and viewed nearly a million times, a sign that reads “STREAMER ARK” appears in the spawning player’s field of vision. The logo of the pro gaming team “Crazy Raccoon” and the gaming community Vaultroom can be seen there. The player continues along a path and on the left and right sides there are not only more logos of Esports teams but also of magazines and companies that have sponsored this event.
In addition, there are further signs with advertisements on the server that also serve as sightseeing spots where screenshots can be taken.
In the planning time of the project, there were concerns about how peaceful the project would be, as some in the group had already played Rust together and there was drama and conflicts. Not surprising for a PvP game like Rust, though. In addition, the communities of the 30 or so steamers and YouTubers are also relatively different, which can also have conflict potential. Moreover, these are some of the biggest Japanese content creators in a country where gaming is deeply rooted in the culture.
Streams I have found have had up to fifty thousand concurrent viewers, videos just a day old have had up to a million views. It’s fair to say that one of the biggest ARK projects is flying over our heads without us even noticing.
Generally speaking, ARK is popular in countries that are not primarily English-speaking and often gets large audiences, which English-speaking content creators often wish they had.
In German we have Dodo Wars based around the gaming community of HandofBlood.
In Spanish, there is ARKADIA around Codigo Alex, which even ended up being hired by Studio Wildcard.
In Japanese, there is now Streamer ARK.
Why do you think ARK is so popular, especially in non-English speaking countries? There must be a reason why ARK is so loved outside of English-speaking countries and is almost a bit of a niche game in English-speaking countries.
But for me, it also shows that ARK is a game that is suitable for the masses if you organize it properly. ARK already had a very loyal Japanese community either way, I see it every day on Twitter when I’m looking for content for the ARK News. So many dedicated and creative people post fanart, ingame photography and just have fun with the game which for many has become just dull and blind try hard min maxing.