The Game Awards drew 2.3 million viewers for its recent two-hour awards show, the event announced today. That number was up 20 percent from less than 2 million last year for the inaugural event hosted by Geoff Keighley.
“We started something special last year with The Game Awards, and it’s encouraging to see the audience grow double-digits for our second outing,” said Keighley, in a blog post.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1850431,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"D"}']Keighley also told Polygon that the awards show broke even and that it would likely be back in December 2016. The good results mean that the show is having an easier time reaching an audience of games in its current livestreamed state than when Keighley did a version of the show on the television channel Spike TV.
The post said that there were more than a billion impressions on Twitter with tweets using #TheGameAwards, up 100 percent from last year’s social impact. More than 175,000 people used the hashtag and wrote about 279,000 tweets. Sentiment on the show was 95 percent positive, as tracked by Sysomos.There were 500,000 user comments in the chat on Twitch and on YouTube Gaming.
The show had its moments, like when Keighley announced that game publisher Konami’s lawyers stopped developer Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid V from appearing at the show. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of those tweets were bashing Konami.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt won Game of the Year, and the awards featured musical performances by CHVRCHES and Deadmau5.
The show aired live across Twitch, YouTube, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam. On Facebook, Keighley said, “Year 2 of anything brings a host of challenges, not the least of which is proving what you did the first time around was more than blind luck. The team and I are thrilled with both the viewership results and the response to the show from fans and those in the game industry. Thank you for watching and for your support. Now we rest.”