Hytale is Twitch's most-watched game as devs finally release Minecraft rival they've "waited ten years" for

It’s finally here. Almost eight years after its 2018 announcement, we finally have our hands on Hytale, the long-awaited Minecraft-like. After a decade of work, an acquisition, and a cancelation at the hands of Riot, what started as a Minecraft server and a dream is now a reality. Hundreds of thousands have flocked to Twitch since the game’s launch today to watch those with faster internet connections take their first steps.

If you don’t know the Hytale story, it’s been a long, arduous journey to get here. After Riot bought developer Hypixel Studios in 2020, many thought we would get the first truly great Minecraft competitor. Unfortunately, Riot canceled the game’s development in June 2025, crushing our hopes and dreams. However, CEO and creator of the original Hypixel Minecraft server that spawned the game, Simon Collins-Laflamme, bought back the studio and the rights in November of last year. Just months later, we’re able to play for ourselves.

While it’s impossible to say whether anything can dethrone Minecraft as the de facto sandbox game, the initial launch looks promising. Hytale already has 344,000 viewers on Twitch at the time of writing, more than any other game. It’s rare for new games to shoot right to the top of the leaderboard so quickly, but then again, players have been waiting patiently for a decade.

It’s just as exciting for the developers themselves. “Going to bed knowing tomorrow we get to press the button we’ve waited 10 years to push,” writes ‘DevSlashNull’. “We can’t wait to see you all in game tomorrow.”

“Today is the day!!” writes Nick ‘zero’, another dev for the game, before its release. “But remember this is merely the beginning.”

The game’s music and sound designer Oscar Garvin echoes his colleagues’ thoughts. “On Feb 1st I’ll have worked on Hytale for 10 years, together with many of my talented colleagues,” he writes. “It’s difficult to find the words right now, but I’m excited. And I know you are too. Have fun and enjoy our game.”

And players seem to be enjoying it so far, despite the dev’s warnings that Hytale would launch in very early access. Just yesterday, the studio confirmed that pre-orders alone will pay for the next two years of development. Perhaps the decade of development and the fight to re-secure the game from the jaws of cancelation was all worth it.

We’ll have plenty more Hytale coverage throughout the week as we get to grips with what exactly the early access build and our favorite Hytale mods have to offer.