What's now the gaming industry's biggest annual night nearly didn't happen at all. The Game Awards came together in 2014 after its predecessor collapsed, funded in part by $1 million of host Geoff Keighley's own money, with no TV broadcaster, no guaranteed audience, and no certainty it would survive past year one. It's since become one of the most-watched entertainment broadcasts in the world, streamed globally rather than aired on television. Click the green Configure button and set how far ahead you'd like to be alerted.
A show built from the wreckage of a cancelled predecessor
Keighley had already spent a decade producing Spike TV's Video Game Awards, which limped to a disappointing end in 2013. When Spike offered to keep the show alive only as a stripped-down streaming product, Keighley walked away and built something new from scratch — pulling together backing from Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and major publishers to launch The Game Awards later that same year. The first show streamed to a respectable but modest 2 million views. It's grown almost every year since.
Numbers that now dwarf most televised award shows
The 2025 ceremony pulled in an estimated 171 million global livestreams across YouTube, Twitch, Steam, TikTok, and other platforms — up double digits from the year before, and the 12th consecutive year of growth. That scale puts it well ahead of many traditional broadcast award shows, despite never airing on conventional television by Keighley's own choice; he's turned down network offers repeatedly to keep creative control over the format.
Part awards show, part trailer drop
Unlike most award ceremonies, The Game Awards isn't only about handing out trophies. It's also become the venue publishers save their biggest reveals for — new game announcements, surprise reveals, and full trailers are packed in alongside the actual awards, which is a big part of why even non-award-show fans tune in live rather than catch a recap the next morning.
So whether you're tracking nominees or just want to catch the surprise reveals as they happen, click that green Configure button and let the show come to you.