The Game Awards Doesn't Need Oscars Comparison, Geoff Keighley Says
The Game Awards 2017 saw its audience grow by 202 percent compared to last year, an increase that cements its status as an industry standard that its winners can be more than proud of. Despite the huge success of this year's show, host Geoff Keighley wants to distance the awards from comparisons with The Oscars.
The increase in viewers also saw 11.5 million fans watching from their homes through live streams as well, according to Polygon. Keighly calls the fanatic reception this year as "off the charts," and social media traffic about the event had been more intense than it ever was since the Game Awards first started.
The night was not without its hiccups, starting with a highlight reel of "A Way Out" Developer Josef Fares flipping the finger at the Oscars onstage. The tirade had some of the audience calling it one of the best parts of the awards, according to CinemaBlend.
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"As for comparisons to The Oscars, I know where Josef is coming from — games are a huge force on the entertainment landscape, yet they don't get the respect they deserve," Keighley would note later.
He adds that the show does not really need a label like "'Oscars of gaming" to be legitimate or successful on their own, and the numbers support him on this one.
"There are probably a lot of factors at play," Keighly began to explain how Nielsen pegged last week's awards on Dec. 7 as the most talked about show of the night, overshadowing even the usual shows and cable broadcasts scheduled for the evening.
"It was a great year for games, we had a record number of viewer votes that drove awareness," he added, referring to the new interactive segments, streaming incentives and social media drives that resulted to 8 million viewers participating in the voting.
