The Game Awards 2021 viewership numbers hit record 85 million

It might be on impossibly late in the day for UK viewers but The Game Awards has become more popular than ever this year.

Given E3 was on a downward spiral even before the pandemic it’s no surprise that The Game Awards has now firmly established itself as the premier venue to announce new video games.

Organisers claim that this year’s show ended up with 85 million livestreams across more than 30 digital networks and social media platforms – by far the biggest audience for any video game event this year.

That’s only a small increase from last year’s 83 million, but thanks to lockdown that was a massive jump from 2019’s 45.2 million, which itself was almost double that of 2018.

This year’s success came despite the fact that there were relatively few major announcements – no doubt as a result of the pandemic – although it did see the first reveals for Star Wars: Eclipse, The Matrix Awakens, Alan Wake 2, Wonder Woman, and Sonic Frontiers (and the Sonic 2 movie).

The Game Awards long ago established itself as the number one game awards event in the industry, with It Takes Two winning this year’s Game of the Year award – the video games equivalent of an Oscar.

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Other records set during the night include 1.6 million tweets about event, when The Game Awards became the top trending term worldwide for the eighth year in a row, and at one point accounted for 11 out of the top 30 worldwide trends.

YouTube viewership was up by 14%, fan voting was up 27% to 23.3 million, and viewership in China rose by double digits.

Naturally, that guarantees there’ll be a Game Awards 2022 and that even more publishers will be looking to make their big announcements during it.