Microsoft’s E3 Broadcast Sets Twitch Record

Microsoft Plans "Biggest E3 Showing Ever"

Last week, the gaming world was filled with announcements with everything from a new Halo game to Fortnite coming to the Switch. But as with every year, who ‘won’ the show is always up for debate.

While there are many ways to measure success, according to Githyp, a gaming analytics company that monitors Twitch activity, Microsoft had the most watched stream during the show. More so, the stream was the most watched live-stream of any event, ever, on the Amazon-owned gaming streaming platform.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

At its peak, there were 1.7 million viewers watching the company’s E3 event which is significantly higher than last years’ stream of 1.1 million concurrent viewers. It should be noted that Microsoft also had the highest viewed live-stream last year during E3 showing that their success in 2017 wasn’t a one-off because of the Xbox One X.

Here’s the rest of the stream stats for E3 to help provide a better picture of Microsoft vs the rest of the industry:

  • Microsoft / Xbox — 1.7 Million viewers (1.1 Million in 2017)
  • Ubisoft — 1.6 Million viewers (986K in 2017)
  • Sony / PlayStation — 1.5 Million viewers (926K in 2017)
  • Bethesda — 964K viewers (233K in 2017)
  • PC Gaming Show — 893K viewers (552K in 2017)
  • Nintendo / Switch — 679K viewers (292K in 2017)
  • EA (Electronic Arts) — 528K viewers (676K in 2017)

Considering that Microsoft is fighting an uphill battle against Sony, this can only be a good thing for the Xbox brand. The company has a long way to go to overtake Sony in the console race, but they are being aggressive with acquisitions and trying to attract exclusives to the platform.

There is no question about it though, for two years in a row, the Xbox has attracted a significant amount of attention. And with the company working on a new generation of devices and also selling the ‘most powerful console’, the future certainly looks brighter than the past.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 11 comments

  • jprestig

    18 June, 2018 - 10:36 am

    <p>Microsoft won me over with this E3. Enough so that I decided to upgrade to the X over the weekend. I was unsure how to feel about the Xbox brand after all the changes at Microsoft over the Spring, but it seems like they are in it for the long haul still and the future looks bright.</p>

    • delorean

      19 June, 2018 - 8:02 am

      <blockquote><a href="#284951"><em>In reply to jprestig:</em></a> Good call. The direction world trade is heading consoles will probably be double the cost by Christmas.</blockquote><p><br></p>

      • Hoomgar

        19 June, 2018 - 12:39 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#285156"><em>In reply to delorean:</em></a>&nbsp; Scary thought isn't it?&nbsp; I sure we all hope you're wrong.&nbsp; If not, I definitely will not be buying one.</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • jrickel96

    18 June, 2018 - 11:04 am

    <p>Xbox users have long been more engaged and more likely to be online on their console. Despite the large lead in console sales, the PS4 does not have a large lead in game sales. Despite a better than 2:1 advantage in console sales, that advantage does not exist in game sales. It's more like 1.2:1. And that's deceptive because Xbox users are more likely to buy DLC or more expensive editions of the games. I've worked with some of the big devs and also have seen market research data – game revenue for Xbox One and PS4 is pretty much even. </p><p><br></p><p>PlayStation needs that many installs to sell volume whereas Xbox has a much higher attach rate on a per console basis. I've been told that if Sony were near Xbox One sales now and maintaining the same attach rate, they'd have serious problems. There's also concern that Sony's first party titles push out sales of third party developers since PlayStation owners do not spend as much.</p><p><br></p><p>The story is that the console market is VERY healthy on all fronts. Nintendo's sales have created fairly easy ports for the industry to a platform that actually supports standards for a change. That has added to the bottom line of several companies. Meanwhile, PlayStation and Xbox are both doing very well. Most expect the Xbox One will surpass the PS4 in North American sales and the console is making gains in Europe on the software sales side. There's plenty of room for all the parties involved.</p>

  • simont

    Premium Member
    18 June, 2018 - 11:10 am

    <p>Are there any stats on viewers using Mixer to view the E3 Announcements?</p>

  • Bats

    18 June, 2018 - 11:53 am

    <p>The Xbox One is practically dead and Microsoft knows it. Therefore, there is no uphill battle for Microsoft to climb.</p><p>If Microsoft has garnered so much attention, then why has sales continue to be so bad?</p><p>Microsoft needs to get creative. That's because whatever they do or will do, they can count on Sony matching them each step of the way. I'm sure Developers will create games for both consoles, but the updates will more likely to go to Sony first. Remember when Paul Thurrott, posted how he felt like a 2nd class citizen&nbsp;when it came to Call of Duty?</p><p>IMO, the future does not look bright for the Xbox at all.&nbsp;</p><p>Plus, I am a bit surprised at how soon the next Xbox gen will be released. IMO, 2020 is too soon, especially for those people who have already have or plan to upgrade to the Xbox One X.&nbsp;"Scarlett" will need a fast start, if it hopes to make the next console wars a real fight. How can that fast start happen, if people already invested in an Xbox One X, just three years before? IMO, you'd have to be super rich or know of a gaming store that pays good value for used consoles.&nbsp;</p>

    • jrickel96

      18 June, 2018 - 12:51 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#284978"><em>In reply to Bats:</em></a></blockquote><p>Software sales for Xbox run near the PS4. The PS4 doesn't outsell the Xbox One in software by anywhere near the 2:1 margin they have in consoles. From a revenue standpoint for software, the two are pretty close to even. EA and Activision have both been on record in the past about this. </p><p><br></p><p>Both consoles are actually doing really well. Sony spends more money subsidizing third party developers to get things to come to them first. PS is really the only consistently strong part of Sony's business apart from their insurance company in Japan, so they spend money to make sure it can stay that way.</p>

    • Jonas BarkÃ¥

      18 June, 2018 - 2:54 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#284978"><em>In reply to Bats:</em></a></blockquote><p>Dead?! Xbox One is selling well, better than both the 360 and PS3. It is just that PS4 is selling *really* well, above all expectations. </p>

  • BarretBlake

    18 June, 2018 - 12:33 pm

    <p>If only Microsoft had a streaming service with which to broadcast their E3 feed to an even higher audience…. I actually tried to find the stream on Mixer but gave up and went to Twitch because a search for "xbox E3" gave me results for all kinds of channels of people watching the stream and live-showing their reactions and commentary, but the actual XBox feed didn't show up in my results at all on the first couple sets of results. Same search on Twitch, the official XBox channel was the top result. Of course, I didn't think at the time to just try mixer.com/xbox. But still, their service, that should be pegged to the top of every search that includes the word xbox.</p>

    • Randall Lewis

      18 June, 2018 - 4:47 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#285003"><em>In reply to BarretBlake:</em></a> Sorry about your issues, I watched the Xbox E3 event on Mixer on my Windows 10 desktop. There were links on a variety of tech websites. Brad didn't report this, but Mixer's viewership of the event was their largest audience ever as well. </blockquote><p><br></p>

  • RR

    19 June, 2018 - 1:53 am

    <p>I guess another way of looking at this data is to consider E3 Microsoft's home turf, no? It's an event held in US time zone when "normal" ? people in other regions may have to sleep. What would be the viewership differentials if the event were held in Asia or Europe? Or put another way, how do console sales break out by region, I would not guess that there is the % same differential everywhere. If such things were considered you may find 1.7M to 1.5M viewers to be like, a win for Sony depending on what you actually expected it to be like based on relative strengths in the US region.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC