When the original Alone in the Dark was released back in 1992, it defined the survival horror genre. Creator Frédérick Raynal’s vision set the standard for the limited-resource, restricted-movement gameplay of survival horror games to come, with Alone in the Dark influencing the entire Resident Evil series among others.
20 years on, the 2024 Alone in the Dark remake takes its cue from the surge of survival horror remakes released in the past few years, ironically being shaped by the very games it inspired. With the immense popularity of the Resident Evil remakes, this new remake hopes to find similar success on streaming platforms. Backed by the star power of Jodie Comer and David Harbour, and led by one of the greatest horror creative directors of the past decade Mikael Hedberg (SOMA, Amnesia), the Alone in the Dark remake has the potential to return the series to its former glory.
Alone in the Dark Remake Has an Admirable Opening Week on Streaming
Alone in the Dark had a strong showing upon its release on the 20th of March, a performance worthy of its recognizable IP. In its first week, Alone in the Dark generated 1.7M hours watched across all platforms. Most of this viewership came from Twitch, but a significant portion of viewership came from an official stream on Steam hosted by famous horror streamer Ash Millman. Millman’s stream generated 292K hours watched – roughly 17% of all viewership.
Aside from this official stream however, LIRIK was the most watched Alone in the Dark streamer with 101K hours watched. LIRIK has been a long-time Twitch streamer, going back to the days of DayZ and now continuing his coverage of horror-themed video games. BurkeBlack devoted the most time to the game however, covering it for 14 hours through his pirate-themed persona.
Alone in the Dark Remake Doesn’t Reach the Heights of Other Horror Remakes
Despite an admirable performance, the Alone in the Dark remake failed to perform as well as other survival horror games of recent years. The most popular survival horror debut on streaming is, unsurprisingly, the Resident Evil 4 remake with 27M hours watched in its first week. Resident Evil 4 just edged out Sons of the Forest by roughly 100K hours watched. Sons of the Forest’s exceptional performance stemmed from its innovative combination of survival horror gameplay with an open world setting.
The game’s diminished performance could be due to a number of streaming competitors. The field of survival horror games is already jam-packed, and streamers may now be suffering from genre exhaustion or putting their time into other horror games. The release of the mega-popular Dragon’s Dogma 2 may also have distracted top streamers from covering Alone in the Dark over multiple streams. Alternatively, critiques of Alone in the Dark’s gameplay may have crimped hype ahead of its release, with publications like The Guardian and Gamespot deriding the janky combat and now-cliched Lovecraftian horror theming.
Despite the underwhelming performance of Alone in the Dark, the survival horror genre is still going strong. More great horror remakes are sure to come, with a Silent Hill 2 remake already due for release late this year and fans clamoring for a remake of the cult classic Eternal Darkness. Stream Hatchet will continue to track the survival horror genre’s popularity on streaming.
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