With hype for the next generation of games consoles continuing to build, Microsoft has given its first big pitch about what games Xbox fans can expect to play on the Xbox Series X.
Yesterday’s Xbox Games Showcase was hotly anticipated, particularly by Halo fans who were desperate to get a first look at some gameplay and see if 343 Studios was going to give us more about the Halo Infinite release date. The online showcase really pulled in the viewers, with over 1.8 million people tuning in across YouTube Gaming, Twitch, and Facebook Gaming, according to Esports Charts Pro. Despite the large crowd of gaming fans, this was still some way off the mind-blowing 7.2 million who tuned in to watch the reveal of Sony’s PlayStation 5.
There was also some controversy in terms of streaming platforms that were showing the event. While Esports Charts Pro shows that Twitch and YouTube achieved extremely similar peak audiences for the main event, the pre-show (which featured some smaller game reveals and a lot of influencer-led content) saw Twitch achieve a peak audience 140,000 higher than YouTube – despite it being a YouTube-exclusive broadcast.
Dozens of prominent streamers, such as Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel and Saqib ‘LIRIK’ Zahid, were watching the pre-show footage on their livestreams with their fans, and this actually saw more people viewing it on Twitch than on YouTube.
On Twitter, YouTube Gaming’s Ryan ‘Fwiz’ Wyatt joked that Twitch streamers could face DMCA’s for “exclusive content being ripped” from the platform. However it looks like Twitch streamers’ craftiness will be swept under the rug on this occasion, with Fwiz saying “GGs xQc and Lirik, this one’s on us.”
Not sure it’s a joke on YouTube. Exclusive content (pre-show) being ripped from YouTube and streaming it on another platform warrants DMCA take downs and implications for partnered streamers on Twitch, which is unfortunate. There’s hundreds of thousands watching on YouTube, too.
— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) July 23, 2020
We love doing our part to spread love to the community. GG’s @xQc and @LIRIK. This one is on us.
— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) July 23, 2020
Even though it didn’t manage to attract the kind of audience the PS5 reveal did, the Xbox Showcase certainly whetted the appetites of fans of Halo, Forza, Fable, and much more. There’s also another Showcase billed for later this year.