The Game Awards 2021 set another viewership record with 85m livestreams

Gotta be honest, I was in bed

The Game Awards has announced that the 2021 iteration of the event set yet another online audience record. According to the number crunchers behind the annual end-of-year show, this year’s showcase smashed the 85 million live stream mark, representing a small but meaty 2% increase on The Game Awards 2020.

Broken down, this equates to somewhere in the region of 3.35 million viewers on streaming platform Twitch alone, with YouTube logging a cumulative 1.75 million hours of the near three-hour showcase. Additionally, viewership in China reached “double-digit” growth year-on-year, with Chinese audiences tuning in via a variety of platforms including Bilibili, Huya, and Tencent Video. Altogether, it is believed that around 30 different online networks carried the show.

Outside of viewership details, some 1.6 million tweets were posted pertaining to the event and its reveals, while audience voting was up by over a full quarter — a 27% increase in voting for a grand total of 23.2 million votes. All of the above numbers represent continued growth for The Game Awards, which continues to find year-on-year success ever since its initial debut in 2014.

This year’s event, emanating from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, saw live performances from Sting and Imagine Dragons, numerous awards handed out to winning publishers, developers, and streamers, and a seemingly endless reel of trailers, reveals, and advertisements. The night ended with Josef Fares accepting the Game of the Year award for Hazelight Studios’ co-op title It Takes Two. While the show was praised by critics and fans for both its high-quality presentation and the tireless commitment of long-time producer Geoff Keighley, some criticized the event for both its exhausting length and its muddled approach to acknowledging recent industry reckonings.

Thank you for watching and supporting #TheGameAwards

This year's show delivered a record 85 million livestreams across more than 30 platforms, as well as record social and voting engagement. pic.twitter.com/zsvgwpSD83

— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 20, 2021