The Game Awards (TGA) have come a long way. From 1.9 million livestreams in its debut year, the annual celebration of all things gaming now stands at an estimated 171 million views for 2025, up 11 per cent over its previous record-setting figure of 154 million.
More impressively, the numbers exclude viewership from Amazon’s Prime Video, which streamed the event for the first time this year, with Twitch, YouTube, and other Western platforms registering a combined peak of 4.4 million concurrent viewers, nine percent more than last year’s show. On X/Twitter, posts about the event saw a 12 percent year-over-year increase, while the official broadcast and related videos gathered over 60 million views on the social media platform.
Authenticated viewer voting also rose by more than 10 percent to over 123 million, including the Players’ Voice award. Non-Western territories weren’t immune to the hype, either — in China, the showcase was distributed across a record number of platforms, including Bilbili, Huya, Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Zhihu, DouYu, Baidu, TapTap, XiaoHongShu, QQ, Kuishou, YouKu, RED, and HeyBox, joining NicoNico in Japan, as well as CHZZK and Soop in South Korea.
Produced and hosted by industry veteran Geoff Keighley, it kicked off in 2014 and has enjoyed increased viewership every year. TGA 2025 was held on 11 December at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre and saw more than 50 game reveals, new trailers, and other announcements, with French developer Sandfall Interactive’s critically acclaimed role-playing title, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, clinching top honours with a historic nine wins, plus Game of the Year.
Other notable fanfare for the night includes a special live musical performance by Evanescence, who rocked to “Afterlife” from Netflix’s Devil May Cry animated series, based on Capcom’s action-adventure franchise, cast appearances by Paramount Pictures’ upcoming live-action film adaptation of Street Fighter, and the yearly “Game of the Year” medley from the crowd-favourite orchestra.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Yong Le
Kevin Low
