Digital Extremes connected with its Warframe players in record numbers during TennoCon, setting an all-time Steam record of 154,246 CCU (concurrent users). The previous CCU high for Warframe on Steam was 131,766 in November 2018. While debuting its new Heart of Deimos open-world expansion, the stream amassed a peak record concurrent viewership across Twitch and Steam of 469,868, gathering a combined 2.44 million hours watched on Twitch.
Without a physical event to host, Digital Extremes broke new ground by inviting players into the open world in real-time during the TennoLive presentation. Host Rebecca Ford delighted and surprised Warframe players who gathered in-game from across the world as they witnessed first-hand, in real-time, new gameplay features while also being presented on stream.
The record-breaking news hits during a difficult year for physical video game events. Like the rest of the world, Digital Extremes was forced to work from home in March. It pivoted in May to transform TennoCon 2020 into an all-digital event, eschewing its annual physical event held in London, Ontario, since 2016. TennoCon 2020 streamed on Twitch.tv/Warframe, Steam, YouTube and Facebook Live all day, Saturday, August 1.
While TennoCon is a community event designed to connect Warframe players with the development team, a portion of the proceeds are given to local community organizations. Digital Extremes partnered with Autism Ontario London and Alzheimer Society London and Middlesex (ASLM) to donate $100,000 CAD to each for a total donation of $200,000.
The new expansion, Heart of Deimos, contains Warframe’s third open world, following Plains of Eidolon (2017) and Fortuna (2018). It contains the new community-created Warframe, Xaku, the deeply customizable new Helminth System, and a cinematic new player experience, planned for release across all platforms (PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch) on Tuesday, August 25.
