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The Game Awards 2018, hosted on 6 December 2018 by host Geoff Keighley, received a record viewership of 26 million viewers. The event was hosted across 40 different platforms, including a chain of them in China, which is a sign of the staggering growth of gaming all over the world.
According to Keighley's recent chain of tweets, the show reached concurrent viewership of over 1.13 million on Twitch. This broke the record of the most concurrently viewed stream on Twitch.
The previous record was held by when streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins brought former NFL player JuJu Smith-Schuster, rapper Travis Scott and Drake online to play a game of Fortnite.
The Game Awards show recognized several popular games, with Red Dead Redemption 2 accumulating four different awards. Fortnite and God of War also saw wins in different categories.
Celebrities such as Jonah Hill and Avengers directors the Russo Brothers, along with top Twitch streamers and game developers, were invited to present some of the awards at the show. That perhaps explains why the event drew in a bigger audience than ever before.
The awards also received very high viewer voting, with about 10.5 million verified votes determining the winners of each category. The show has added some new categories for e-sports as well.
What was new at the event was the revelation of many new games such as Devil May Cry 5, Far Cry: New Dawn and the PUBG snow map Vikendi. Normally, this is something you only ever see at big events such as E3.
The Game Awards was not very successful in its early days, but Keighley has turned it around. High-profile personalities now dress up in their finest to be seen at the event, which shows how much it has evolved over the years.
The success of the show, as well as the high growth of sales from video games across all platforms across the world, is quickly changing the industry. The e-sports industry as well as various award shows such as the Game Awards are getting noticed by many, including celebrities and investors.
