Live streaming is a constantly evolving and growing industry, and to celebrate many of the most influential, innovative, and hard-working members of the industry many groups have set up various awards shows to highlight this talent.
For this article, we will look through the most popular awards shows of the year by peak concurrent viewers. All awards shows hosted throughout 2023 were considered for this piece, provided they were hosted and or covered on live-streaming platforms. Some awards shows in this ranking dealt with awards for 2022, but since the shows themselves were hosted in 2023 they are also considered here.
Most Popular Awards Shows of the Year
| Ranking | Awards Show | Peak Viewers |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | The Game Awards | 3.61M |
| #2 | NIMO TV Global Gala | 3.04M |
| #3 | Premios ESLAND | 1.75M |
| #4 | Best FIFA Football Awards | 844K |
| #5 | The Streamer Awards | 580K |
| #6 | Streamy Awards | 268K |
| #7 | LCK Awards | 147K |
| #8 | Esports Awards | 92K |
| #9 | OTK Video Game Awards | 79K |
| #10 | The VTuber Awards | 68K |
The singular most popular awards show of 2023 was The Game Awards 2023. The 2023 edition of the show was its most popular iteration ever, with over 3.6M Peak Viewers recorded for the event. This figure was heavily boosted by the wide coverage of the event by community streamers, and over 1000 individual channels were recorded to cover the event across various live-streaming platforms.
Read also: The Game Awards 2023 raised the bar for gaming award show popularity with 3.6M concurrent viewers
The Game Awards is focused on celebrating talent and dedication within the video games industry. The show gives out awards for things such as “Game of the Year”, as well as more niche areas like “Innovation in Accessibility”, and it branched out into esports in recent years with some awards given for esports success.
In second place, with over 3.04M Peak Viewers was the NIMO TV Global Gala 2023 event. The event was held in April 2023 at the White Palace in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Nimo TV is the global operation of the Chinese live-streaming platform Huya Live. The global operation is most popular in Vietnam, hence the awards show being hosted there.
The event focused on live streaming industry awards such as “Agency of the Year”, “Most Popular Streamer of the Year”, and more. The Awards Show was so highly watched, it became the most popular broadcast on Nimo TV in the platform’s history.
Read also: Nimo TV Global Gala 2023 becomes most popular event on platform ever
From The Game Awards in Los Angeles to the Nimo TV Global Gala in Vietnam, awards shows focusing on the live streaming and video gaming industries mirror the global nature of these industries. Heading to another major demographic for these, the Premios ESLAND 2023 show was the third-most-popular awards show of 2023.
The Premios ESLAND or ESLAND Awards are a celebration of the live streaming community from Latin America, Spain, and Andorra. The awards show was created by Spanish creator TheGrefg to celebrate the brilliance he sees in his own community.
The 2023 edition of the awards show gave out awards for the best streamers and industry members of 2022, with Ibai taking home 10 nominations, the most of any nominee, and 2 awards. TheGrefg recently announced the 2024 ESLAND Awards, which will take place on February 17 in Andorra, where he has lived since 2018.
The BEST FIFA Football Awards 2022 was hosted early in 2023 and received 844K Peak Viewers. The show was hosted on the FIFA+ streaming service as well as by the official FIFA TV YouTube channel. In the mere hour and a half the show was live on YouTube, it wracked up some impressive metrics.
Last but not least was The Streamer Awards, hosted and created by QTCinderella. The awards show was created to celebrate other streamers and creators in the industry, as many of the famous awards shows at the time did not celebrate individual streamers, except for maybe a “Streamer of the Year” award.
The Streamer Awards brought something fresh to the table by focusing in-depth on the streaming community, letting them host awards for niche categories such as “Best GTA RP Streamer,” “Best Souslike Streamer”, and “Best Speedrunner”. In total, The Streamer Awards 2023 received 580K Peak Viewers, with the majority of these viewers being directly from QTCinderella’s own TWitch coverage of the event.
The other awards in this ranking were either video game or live streaming related. The 13th Annual Streamy Awards reached 268K Peak Viewers, a significant increase from the 186K PV recorded in 2022. The awards show celebrated streamers and creators of all kinds, similar to The VTuber Awards, which celebrated all streamers and creators in a more niche part of the live-streaming community. Hosted and founded by rising internet star filian, the event celebrated the entire VTubing community and reached 68K PV.
Read also: The VTuber Awards 2023 set peak viewership records for Filian and other VTubers
The remaining top awards shows of the year were all related to the video game industry, either focusing on the overall industry or focusing directly on esports. The Esports Awards allows for an overarching view of the entire esports industry, with players from all different kinds of games being nominated for “Play of the Year”, for example. The show received 92K PV, fewer than its more niche rival the LCK Awards.
The LCK Awards does what it says on the tin: celebrates the players and staff that give the League of Legends Champions Korea its thriving competitive scene. The LCK Awards stands out here as the only awards show hosted for a particular esports competitive league, rather than esports as a whole. The show proved there’s an audience for this niche esports content, having reached 147K Peak Viewers.
Finally, the OTK Video Game Awards looked at the video game industry overall. The event was hosted by sodapoppin and did dip its toes into the live-streaming side of the industry, but generally remained video game-focused. The event received 79K PV, boosted by the many live streamers to co-broadcast the event on their personal channel.
Awards shows are becoming a yearly highlight for many in live streaming. As the streaming industry has grown, so have many of the awards shows celebrating the successes of this sphere. A couple of years ago, there were barely any specialised awards shows for live streamers, but in 2023 we saw awards shows for streaming communities like the Spanish-speaking community and VTubers, and also streamer-hosted awards shows, which are generating enough viewership to continue to be hosted every year.
