The Game Awards just keeps getting bigger and bigger. While viewers sometimes complain about the marathon runtime and nitpick every game announcement trailer they don’t care about, Geoff Keighley’s year-end showcase has become the closest thing we still have to an old-school E3 marketing extravaganza. In the face of annual criticism about not putting the focus exclusively on the awards part of the ceremony, the host recently explained why his show is as much about recognizing art as it is about revealing big game announcements.
“There are many different constituents that tune in,” Keighley told The Game Business (a newsletter he cofounded with author Chris Dring) in a new interview. “And it is a balancing act. You correctly pointed out that there’s the awards aspect of the show, there’s the announcement aspect, and yes, there are some people that would like to see the show be all awards. Some would like to see all announcements.”
He described a virtuous cycle in which more viewership means more attention for the games being celebrated, big and small, which can in turn lead to more sales for the companies or indie teams behind them.
“My view always is that the announcements create a very wide audience that tunes into the show,” he said. “And because of that, when we do give out these awards, they’re seen by a lot of people. Lots of games get sold out of The Game Awards. Balatro had a huge boost. So hopefully it’s a good thing for developers. But that careful balance is a hard thing to strike and we don’t always get it right.”
Balatro was already a big sensation in the gaming world by the time The Game Awards 2024 aired, but its prizes that night helped catapult it to even bigger success in the months that followed, aided in part by a popular mobile port. All of a sudden games that were big among a hardcore group are exposed to a much wider audience.
Even just getting nominated can help raise visibility in that way. Alinea Analytics’ Rhys Elliott recently shared the estimated sales boosts that the Game Awards’ Game of the Year contenders have received over the past few weeks. While the effect was biggest for frontrunner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the most nominated game in TGAs history, nominees like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 were also projected to have sold an additional 100,000 copies during the period.
Elliott says holiday sales are also a big factor in that. That’s probably why any Game Awards winners cut their price directly after the event to take advantage of the brief spotlight.
