The Game Awards announced Monday that its eighth annual ceremony on December 9 drew 85 million live streams, up from 83 million in 2020 and the biggest to date.
The video game industry’s greatest annual event, hosted and curated by executive producer Geoff Keighley at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, was streamed live across all major social and digital networks across the world, with the family-themed action-adventure It Takes Two taking the top award.
The Game Awards 2021 Official Livestream
In terms of numbers, this translates to almost 3.35 million viewers on Twitch alone, with YouTube clocking a total of 1.75 million hours of the nearly three-hour display. In addition, viewership in China increased by “double digits” year over year, with Chinese viewers tuning in via platforms such as Bilibili, Huya, and Tencent Video. It’s estimated that the show was broadcast on about 30 different web networks.
Aside from viewership numbers, there were 1.6 million tweets about the event and its revelations, and audience voting went up by nearly a quarter – a 27% rise in votes for a total of 23.2 million votes. All of the following figures show that The Game Awards has been growing year after year since its inception in 2014.
Sting and Imagine Dragons performed live at this year’s event, which took place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. There were also multiple prizes given out to winning publishers, developers, and streamers, as well as a seemingly unending reel of trailers, reveals, and advertising. Josef Fares accepted the Game of the Year award for Hazelight Studios’ co-op title It Takes Two at the end of the night. While critics and fans commended the show for its high-quality presentation and long-time producer Geoff Keighley’s unwavering dedication, some panned it for its gruelling length and confusing approach to acknowledging recent industry reckonings.
