Gamescom: Opening Night Live Attracted Over 12 Million Viewers

Geoff Keighley, the host of this year’s Gamescom: Opening Night Live, has announced that the show had over 12 million viewers online, and over 265,000 people attended the event in person. In comparison, this year’s Summer Game Fest attracted 27 million viewers for its opening showcase. Although both summer events pale in comparison to The Game Awards, which had over 85 million viewers during last year’s show. Check out Geoff Keighley’s announcement below.

It has been announced that over 265,000 visitors from over 100 countries attended @gamescom this year, with over 12 million views of #OpeningNightLive

Geoff Keighley

It’s a big win for Gamescom that, traditionally, hasn’t had as big of an online impact as other summer gaming events such as E3 and Summer Games Fest. Despite being the biggest gaming event in the world in terms of the number of visitors and exhibitors.

This year’s Gamescom event was the first to have people attend physically in Germany since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 265,000 in-person attendance for this year’s event is just 71% of the attendees compared to the last show pre-pandemic. The 2019 event had over 373,000 attendees. Still, it’s better than E3 not having a show at all this year, and a 30% attendance drop after a global pandemic is better than the zero attendance Gamescom has had for the previous two years.

This year’s Gamescom was attended by publishers and developers from around the world. Gamescom: Opening Night Live was jam-packed with new announcements, trailers, and gameplay reveals for upcoming titles. Microsoft showed off gameplay for many to its upcoming Game Pass titles, Sony exclusively revealed the new PlayStation 5 DualSense Edge controller at the event, and games like Lies of P dominated social media following their gameplay reveals during Opening Night Live.

Dead Island 2 was also re-revealed during the Gamescom: Opening Night Live show. The game was originally announced all the way back in 2014 before entering development hell. Although the Dead Island 2 reveal was somewhat spoiled by leaks before the event, the announcement was a surprise for the show and closed out the two-hour spectacle.

Gamescom 2023 has already been confirmed by the Association of the German Games Industry. Next year’s event will take place from August 23-27, 2023, and will once again kick off with Gamescom Opening Night Live.

Next up for this year’s gaming calendar is September’s Tokyo Game Show, which will also have in-person attendance for the first time since the pandemic, and December’s The Game Awards. Tokyo Game Show will take place from September 15-18, while this year’s The Game Awards show will take place on December 8.

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