The opening night of the latest edition of the gamescom took place last night, with the major talking points being Starfield's live-action teaser trailer, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's gameplay trailer, Diablo 4 Season 2's name (Season of Blood), and another trailer for the much-anticipated Alan Wake 2. Geoff Keighley hosted the event once again, and it got off to a solid start in terms of viewership numbers, with one prominent streamer playing a major part.
Day 1 of the world's largest gaming event — being held until August 27 at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany — also saw a reveal of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon's first trailer, while its second part's release date was announced. It should be mentioned that Keighley had warned fans not to expect a lot of world premieres even though the show was slated to run for two hours.
The gamescom 2023 Opening Night Live hit 3.9M Hours Watched, 1.3M Peak Viewers, and 674K Average Viewers over an airtime of six hours. English was the most popular language among audiences, taking up almost 50% of the overall watch hours, with Spanish the only other entry to hit double figures. French and German had an almost equal share of the pie, while the most viewed Asian language was Korean.
Unsurprisingly, xQc turned out to be the most popular and watched individual channel, with rubius and lirik contributing handsomely to both metrics as well. The Canadian megastar continues to be vital to such non-esports events, as his coverage or participation pulls in millions of extra viewers and helps them reach a wider audience base.
For those interested, there was also new info on Mortal Kombat 1, which revealed two new fighters — Sindel and General Shao — who will be added to the roster. Another legendary fighting franchise had news, as Tekken 8's release date was revealed to be January 26, 2024, for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Fans also got a glimpse of the game's single-player mode, which aims to honor the nostalgic days of the arcade scene.
Gamescom 2023 has gotten off to a great start viewership-wise, already overtaking the overall numbers of many of the summer gaming conferences. For now, only the Summer Game Fest 2023, PlayStation Showcase 2023, and Xbox Games Showcase & Starfield Direct 2023 are ahead in terms of watch hours among this year's showcases, and the main event could also climb up this ladder over the next few days as more and more news starts filtering out.
It also ended in sixth among the most popular video game exhibitions held in 2023, with the two Nintendo Directs ahead of them, apart from the three names mentioned above. With lots of information still to come and five days to do so, fans will be hoping that the central showcase also ranks high on this list come August 27.
Where to watch gamescom 2023
Like every year, this video game convention will have gaming reveals, news, demos, cosplays, interviews, and more, with some of the more famous attendees being Nintendo and Xbox. Moreover, those attending it in person can explore the Cosplay Village, esports event arena, indie and retro areas, and the hundreds of gaming stations and booths.
Gamescom 2023 can be caught on the official YouTube and Twitch channels of the organization. Users can also watch the action on the handles of their favorite content creators, who will also be community-casting the exhibition from the comforts of their homes.
Interestingly, Geoff Keighley — also the presenter at the event — said that the livestream will focus more on updates for games scheduled to be released next year. More information about proceedings can be viewed here, while tickets can be purchased on this link.
