The Game Awards have enjoyed consistent growth since the first showcase took place in December 2014, to the point where they have become an integral pillar for the community, especially in terms of new reveals and announcements by developers and publishers all around the world. This year’s showcase, like previous years’, was another one to exhibit continued growth for the event.
Producer and host Geoff Keighley recently took to Twitter and revealed that The Game Awards 2023 drew in 118 million global livestreams, making it the most watched show in the event’s history. That represents a 15% year-on-year bump from last year’s show, which had over 103 million live viewers.
Keighley also shared several-platform specific numbers, revealing that the YouTube 4K stream for the event 53% year-on-year increase in peak concurrent viewers, topping at over 900,000. That number goes up to 1.7 million concurrent viewers when co-streams are included (across over 4,000 channels), which is a 35% YoY increase.
Outside of YouTube, on Twitch, over 13,680 channels co-streamed the event, up 24% from last year, with peak concurrent audience hitting 1.94 million, which is a 10% YoY increase. In total, across all platforms, over 17,000 channels co-streamed The Game Awards 2023.
The event played host to a number of major showcases, including updates for titles such as Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Black Myth: Wukong, and announcements of new games like Light No Fire, Monster Hunter Wilds, Marvel’s Blade, and revivals for number of classic Sega franchises.
Where the awards themselves were concerned, Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 was the big winner at the show, winning in six different categories (out of the eight it was nominated in), including Best RPG, Best Performance, Best Multiplayer Game, and Game of the Year.