The Game Awards came back roaring to the live stage at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles more than a week ago, albeit with new COVID-19 rules to keep presenters, awards nominees, performers, and the general audience safe. Its comeback to an in-person show made The Game Awards a viewing success, especially for those who were watching the show from the comfort of their home.
Host Geoff Keighley announced in a tweet on Monday that The Game Awards raked in a record 85 million livestreams worldwide, its biggest audience in the show’s seven-year history. That’s an increase of 2 million livestreams from last year, when the show generated 83 million livestreams thanks to the pandemic forcing the creation of an all-virtual show from L.A., London, and Tokyo.
In addition to the gargantuan viewership, Keighley provided more record-breaking statistics for this year’s show, saying there were 1.6 million tweets about The Game Awards (hashtagged or not), 23.2 million viewer votes, and a combined 1.75 million hours of the livestream watched on YouTube. Those figures may be owed to live performances by Sting and Imagine Dragons; exclusive reveals such as Sonic Frontiers, the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie, and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League; and surprise awards such as It Takes Two winning Game of the Year.
In 2019 and 2018, The Game Awards brought in 45 million and 26 million livestream views, respectively. Thanks to the hybrid virtual model organizers have developed in the past year, the awards show has leveled up in terms of viewership and social media engagement.
