On June 18th, Nintendo held a summer event known as Nintendo Direct, revealing their upcoming games and remakes. The Direct lasted 55 minutes and reached over 2.96 million peak viewers, marking it as the second most-watched Nintendo presentation.
Throughout the livestream, Nintendo's game directors presented details on 27 titles, encompassing new projects, remasters, spin-offs, and ports of popular games. One of the standout highlights was the unveiling of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond — after a 7-year wait since its initial announcement, developers finally showcased gameplay footage featuring the protagonist battling space monsters. The game is scheduled for release in 2025.
During Nintendo Direct, another highlight was the announcement of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the franchise's inaugural game where players take on the role of Zelda. Drawing visual inspiration from Link’s Awakening, this installment introduces a novel mechanic: Zelda can now duplicate items and creatures she encounters in the game world. This innovative feature proves invaluable for solving quests, puzzles, and discovering hidden secrets throughout the gameplay experience. Echoes of Wisdom is scheduled for release on September 26, 2024, exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
During the Nintendo Direct presentation, Mario & Luigi: Brothership was revealed as a new game starring the iconic plumbing brothers. Based on the trailer, the gameplay emphasizes cooperative play and interaction between the siblings, both in combat and during exploration. This release will be the first new installment in the franchise in nine years, with a scheduled launch date of November 7, 2024.
During the Nintendo Direct on June 18, 2024, several notable announcements stood out. These included remakes such as Dragon Quest III HD-2D and Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven. Also featured was the second installment based on the popular anime Fairy Tail, named Super Mario Party Jamboree, offering online play for up to 20 players. Additionally, there was a lineup of sports games in Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports, along with various other projects. Nintendo confirmed upcoming Switch ports for the year: Stray, Darkest Dungeon II, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, and Donkey Kong Country Returns HD.
In terms of viewership, the June 18, 2024, Nintendo Direct amassed over 2 million hours of viewing time. The average concurrent viewership peaked at 2.2 million, setting a new record as the highest average viewership for any Nintendo Direct presentation to date, surpassing the 2 million mark for the first time. The peak concurrent viewers reached 2.96 million, making it the second-highest peak viewership after Nintendo Direct E3 2021, which had 3.8 million peak viewers. Overall, despite focusing solely on gaming updates without any new Nintendo Switch announcements, the summer presentation was highly successful.
The Nintendo Direct broadcasts on June 18 were aired across more than 570 different channels. While substantial, this number falls short of Nintendo's record, where some presentations have been covered on approximately 1000 channels. The majority of viewers tuned in through Nintendo's official YouTube channels, particularly the Japanese and English channels, which showed notable dominance. For example, Nintendo's official Japanese channel reached over 1.26 million peak viewers, setting a new record for peak viewership compared to its previous best of 903.8K viewers during Nintendo Direct - Sep 2023. The Spanish, British, and French Nintendo channels also garnered high peak viewership. In terms of community casters, Spanish streamer alexelcapo attracted the largest audience, with 37.1K simultaneous viewers on Twitch.
The primary languages used during the Nintendo Direct - June 2024 broadcasts were Japanese and English, accounting for about 82% of the total viewing hours across all streams. YouTube broadcasts mirrored this distribution, capturing a similar share and outperforming other platforms significantly.
During Nintendo Direct, Twitch viewers were highly engaged in discussions about the new Mario games — Mario & Luigi: Brothership and Super Mario Party Jamboree. Throughout the one-hour broadcast, mentions of the iconic plumber in Twitch chats totaled 74.6K. Close behind was The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, with the main heroine's name mentioned over 57.6K times during the game's presentation. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the remake of Dragon Quest III, and Among Us also ranked among the top five most discussed topics.
Regarding the presentation itself, on June 18, mentions of Nintendo Direct in Twitch chats surged from 200-300 to 12K messages. Interestingly, alongside the increase in mentions of Nintendo Direct, there was a rise in discussions related to Nintendo Switch, jumping from 600-800 to 2.4K messages in a day. This is notable given Nintendo's earlier statement that no new announcements about their handheld console would be made during the June Nintendo Direct broadcast.
