The Game Awards breaks viewership record with 118 million livestreams

The Game Awards 2023 broke the event’s viewership record with an estimated 118 million livestreams.

That’s according to event producer and host Geoff Keighley, who said viewership for last Thursday’s show was up 15% compared to 2022’s awards.

The event, which took place on December 7 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, was a major production featuring musical performances, celebrity guests, a host of game reveals and an awards show.

It was streamed live across 30 platforms including Twitch, X, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WeChat, Weibo and Bilibili, while more than 17,000 channels co-streamed the show, according to Keighley.

The Game Awards debuted in 2014 with 1.9 million viewers and has grown every year since.

Over the last few years, the event appears to have established itself as the most-watched awards show in the world.

Major film and TV awards shows like the Oscars and Emmys have traditionally been big business for broadcast TV networks, but their audiences have fallen in recent years, partly due to the advent of streaming.

The most-watched Oscars broadcast of all time, which saw Titanic winning Best Picture in 1998, attracted 57 million viewers, according to Entertainment Weekly.

In comparison, this year’s 95th Academy Awards drew an average audience of 18.7 million viewers, ahead of 2023’s Grammys (12.5 million) and Emmys (5 million).

According to Axios, the TV contracts for the Emmys, Grammys and Tonys all run through 2026, while the current Oscars deal ends in 2028.