Streaming is no longer just about games. Streamers draw, sing and host live events, and Just Chatting even became the most popular category in 2020. This popularity of streaming has allowed “classic” events as showcases and concerts to move online during the pandemic and draw attention to industry innovations through screens rather than in venues.
In this article, Streams Charts will describe which events and showcases have gained the most popularity on streaming platforms and set records.
The most popular events on streaming platforms in 2020
The most popular streaming event was the launch of NASA's Falcon 9 rocket in June 2020. This was the first flight 9 years after the closure of the Space Shuttle program. The launch was broadcast not only on the official NASA channel but also by popular media, such as NBC News, PBS, and The Telegraph. The event's peak viewers reached 10M.
The second and third places went to Sony Playstation 5 showcases. The presentation of the new-generation console attracted a record-breaking 7M viewers.
Read: The presentation of the PlayStation 5 was crowned with success
The second presentation of Playstation 5 Showcase was focused on the new generation of games, including Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Final Fantasy 16, and God of War: Ragnarok. The event drew 4.5M concurrent viewers at its peak.
The fourth line of the overall rating is taken by the stream with the announcement of the US presidential election results. In total, the event was watched by 4.1M viewers, but in terms of hours watched, it is the top-1 stream of the year with 52M. While YouTube has the most viewers on news channels, Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker, a former TV presenter and political commentator, is leading on Twitch. His channel hit the mark of 226K peak viewers.
The Game Awards 2020 is the last one in our top 5 events in terms of PV. The award ceremony, where the best games of the year were announced and new projects were shown, took place on December 10. The event reached 3.4M peak viewers.
We should also note Apple's presentations. In 2020, the Cupertino-based company introduced a new generation of its devices. In the fall, three showcases were held, and the most popular of them was the Apple Event — October 13. During the event, the world saw iPhone 12, its presentation hit 3.1M peak viewers.
The most popular music events in 2020
The concert of the Spanish artist Bad Bunny on Uforia Live ranks first in terms of PV. Benito is one of the most popular Latin rappers and the winner of many awards. His performance on September 29 attracted 1.5M viewers at its peak. Interestingly, Ibai Llanos, the 2020 phenomenon, also streamed the event and got 84K PV.
The second most popular music event was the rap battle Final Internacional 2020 Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos. 16 best Spanish freestylers fought there. The event reached 1.5M peak viewers.
Everything related to music cannot do without Koreans. The annual award for Korean artists — Mnet Asian Music Awards, abbreviated as MAMA 2020, took third place in our ranking. An incredible show, many performers, and unexpected collaborations were the main features of the award, so the event was watched by 1M viewers at its peak.
The remaining lines of the rating were again occupied by the Spanish-language rap battles Final Nacional Argentina 2020 | Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos and God Level All Stars España 2020, which reached 932K and 562K peak viewers, respectively.
The most popular game events in 2020
Before the coronavirus, game presentations were a big deal. Huge pavilions, lots of fans, and celebrities. Now we have to settle for online performances. In addition to the Playstation 5, 2020 will be remembered for Ubisoft Forward and their new projects, the German Gamescom 2020 with the announcement of new parts of CoD and Dragon Age, the Japanese presentation of Monst Freak, and, of course, the presentation of games for Xbox.
We found out if the Playstation 5 Showcase audience overlaps with the Xbox Games Showcase's one. The intersection of unique viewers on Twitch was 27%, which is the percentage of the XBOX audience who watched Sony's broadcast. Notably, Sony collected more hours watched on YouTube (57.9%), while Xbox preferred Twitch (52%).
All Cyberpunk 2077 presentations were included in the top 25 events on Twitch. The developers released a series of videos called Night Сity Wire, where they talked about the development process and features of the game. The most popular was the first episode with 865K peak viewers.
Read: Night City Wire Results
The year was also rich in charity events and marathons. The most popular of them was the Z Event 2020 streamer marathon from the French ZeratoR and Dach. They and 39 other streamers broadcasted on Twitch for 3 days and raised money for charity for Amnesty International. Read more in this article.
The organizers of the events found a way to maintain interest in games during the pandemic. The question remains, what will happen to many of the streaming categories when the lockdown ends?
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