Building on its success as a fully distributed, all digital awards show, The Game Awards today announced that its 2017 broadcast tripled its viewership to over 11.5 million global livestreams, up 202% from 2016’s record-setting performance of 3.8 million livestreams. Airing live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 7, The Game Awards posted significant increases in live viewership and engagement across all key distribution platforms.
“We are thrilled by the viewership, engagement and reaction to The Game Awards this year,” said Geoff Keighley, executive producer. “With triple-digit viewership gains across the board, plus record setting social media metrics, one thing is clear: video games and gamers continue to grow in importance and prominence on the pop culture landscape.”
On social platforms, The Game Awards posted double and triple digit gains in engagement – including on Twitter, where the number of people tweeting about Game Awards related-content doubled year over year, with #TheGameAwards hashtag usage up 2.7x compared to 2016 (Source: Twitter). When compared to social conversation around broadcast and cable TV programming, The Game Awards was the #1 program on December 7, excluding live sports. (Source: Nielsen).
This year, new interactive elements helped increase live engagement during the broadcast. On Twitch, The Game Awards Extension gave viewers a chance to interact with the show and predict winners in all the main show category. More than 70% of the Twitch audience interacted with the extension. On Steam, a “Game Awards Game Giveaway” during the live show helped drive record-setting live stream numbers, including an average watch time of 70 minutes per Steam viewer.
The Game Awards 2017 featured highlight moments such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild winning Game of the Year, pioneering female game designer Carol Shaw receiving the Industry Icon Award, and the world premiere of a new trailer for Hideo Kojima and Norman Reedus’ new collaboration, Death Stranding. New game announcements included Bayonetta 3 from Nintendo and Platinum Games; From Software’s next project; In the Valley of Gods from Campo Santo; Soul Calibur VI from Bandai Namco; Witchfire from The Astronauts; GTFO from 10 Chambers Collective and more. Talent appearing during The Game Awards included Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Guillermo del Toro, Norman Reedus, Zachary Levi, Aisha Tyler, iJustine, Conan O’Brien, Lance Reddick, Jason Schwartzman, Felicia Day, Justin Roiland, and Andy Serkis, in addition to musical performances by Phoenix and The Game Awards Orchestra.
The Game Awards aired globally across a record number of screens and digital platforms including Facebook Live, GameSpot, IGN, KakaoTV (South Korea), Live.Playstation, Mixer, NicoNico (Japan) PlayStation Store, Steam, Tencent (China) Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube in 4K UHD.