The Game Awards 2022 has set a new record for combined viewership numbers across all the platforms the show streamed on. Hours after the show, Geoff Keighley tweeted a claim that The Game Awards 2022 may have already surpassed previous records, and now the official viewership numbers have been revealed.
The show is being spoken about among fans and video game talk shows as one of the best in years. With the Game of the Year category coming down to a two-horse race, everything else surrounding the show was just as entertaining. The show also held different giveaways on some of its streaming platforms like Twitch and Steam that helped draw even more viewers to the show. Those efforts to incentivize viewership paid off for The Game Awards as they blew passed expectations.
The Game Awards announced that the 2022 show amassed a staggering 103 million global livestream viewers across over 30 different streaming platforms. This is a testament to Geoff Keighley for making the show as accessible as possible. This marks a 21% increase in viewership from last year. The breakdown of viewership numbers on The Game Awards' website lists that Twitter had a peak of 11.5 million and a 28% increase in conversation volume over last year, which was potentially bolstered by the strange incident at the end of The Game Awards 2022. #TheGameAwards vaulted to the number 1 spot on Trending Topics during that time and usage of the hashtag grew 31% from 2021.
Viewership on YouTube peaked at 1.3 million concurrent viewers, with 603,000 coming from The Game Awards' YouTube Channel, with the rest coming from other partners and channels co-streaming the event. 9.5 million unique customers on Steam watched the show there, trying to cash in on the Steam Deck giveaway for viewers on that platform. Twitch had 1.9 million concurrent viewers across the platform, including co-stream partners for an increase of 20% from 2021. The Game Awards Twitch channel peaked at 571,000 concurrent viewers.
Viewership was also spread out to other platforms like TikTok Live, Instagram Live, livestream partners in other countries like China and India, and The IMAX Experience in theaters around the world. Specifics on those numbers were not shared. The show produced its own memorable highlights with game reveals of Hades 2, Armored Core 6, Death Stranding 2, and others, moments like Christopher Judge's lengthy acceptance speech for Best Performance, and the emergence of Pedro Eustache aka "Flute Guy" as a community darling.
The Game Awards has already been confirmed for a return in 2023 for its 10th Anniversary and Geoff Keighley is making 2023 his busiest yet. There will be a live orchestral show at the Hollywood Bowl in June 2023, celebrating music from games honored during the show throughout the year. That will also be around the time he hosts his Summer Game Fest event which will also take place alongside or around the return of E3 that month.
Source: The Game Awards