The Game Awards, the video game industry’s year-end celebration, today announced that its eighth annual show set a new record with an estimated 85 million global livestreams. With appearances from Keanu Reeves and Carrie Anne-Moss, Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz, Guillermo del Toro and Hideo Kojima, Simu Liu, Ming-Na Wen, Giancarlo Esposito and more, plus spectacular performances by Sting, Imagine Dragons (featuring Darren Korb, Ashley Barrett and J.I.D.) and The Game Awards Orchestra, conducted by Lorne Balfe, The Game Awards reaffirmed video game’s position as the preeminent force in global entertainment.
With an all-digital, no friction approach to global distribution, The Game Awards streamed live across more than 30 digital networks around the world, including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok Live, and Steam, as well as more than a dozen digital platforms in China and Disney+Hotstar, MTV, and other networks in India.
2021 viewership and engagement highlights include:
– On Twitter, The Game Awards delivered a record-setting 1.6 million tweets about the event in 2021, it’s best-ever performance. The show trended #1 worldwide for the 8th year in a row, commanding 11 out of the top 30 worldwide trends at the peak of conversation.
– On YouTube, the official livestream set a new record for watch time with over 1.75 million hours watched on the main feed (not including any co-streams), up 14% over 2020’s record-setting livestream.
– On Twitch, The Game Awards delivered 3.35M unique viewers across all participating channels, including co-streams.
-In China, The Game Awards reached new viewership peaks with double-digit growth on platforms including Bilibili, DouYu, Huya and Tencent Video.- On the web, authenticated fan voting for the awards increased 27% YoY to more than 23.2 million on TheGameAwards.com and Bilibili in China.
“We are grateful we could return to an in-person ceremony in 2021 and continue to build on our success with significant international growth in 2021,” said Geoff Keighley, producer, The Game Awards.
The Game Awards gave fans a glimpse at what’s next in gaming and entertainment with more than 30 world premieres of upcoming projects, including Star Wars Eclipse, The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, Alan Wake II, Sonic 2 and Sonic Frontiers, Wonder Woman, Horizon Forbidden West, and many more. Hazelight Studios’ It Takes Two won a total of three awards, including Game of the Year. Forza Horizon 5 from Xbox Game Studios and Playground Games, took home the honors for Best Sports/Racing Game, Innovation in Accessibility and Best Audio Design, and Bethesda and Arkane Studios’ Deathloop picked up Best Game Direction and Best Art Direction.
Here are the historical live stream numbers for The Game Awards:
- 2021: 85 Million
- 2020: 83 Million
- 2019: 45.2 Million
- 2018: 26.2 Million
- 2017: 11.5 Million
- 2016: 3.8 Million
- 2015: 2.3 MIllion
- 2014: 1.9 Million
The Game Awards aired globally across more than 30 digital video networks including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Live, GameSpot, IGN, TikTok Live, and Steam. Internationally, the program aired on more than a dozen networks in China including Huya, DouYu, Bilibili, Tencent Video, YouKu, PPTV, and NetEase CC, in India on Disney+/Hotstar, MTV, Jio TV, MX Player, Voot, and Loco, as well as live distribution in Japan (NicoNico), Russia (VK), South Korea (Afreeca TV, Naver) and in immersive formats including Horizon Venues in VR, in Cinemark Theatres, and in the CORE metaverse.
The Game Awards Sale offered discounts on games across major platforms including PlayStation Store, Xbox, Steam, Nintendo eShop, and Epic Games Store.
The Game Awards also announced its second annual Future Class list, composed of 50 talented individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future of video games. The Game Awards Future Class featured a diverse group of builders, thinkers and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify the artform of gaming and whose passion makes the industry stronger.
The Game Awards is executive produced by Geoff Keighley and Kimmie Kim. LeRoy Bennett is creative director, and Rich Preuss is director.
