The Video Game Awards are a high-profile event, but trade mainstream exposure for a production some gamers find cheaply stereotypical. That bargain still hasn't conclusively paid off; overall ratings declined for a third straight year, but gained in some demographics.
Variety reports that Saturday's production delivered 627,000 viewers to Spike, a 3 percent drop from last year. While Nielsen will consider DVR playbacks through Dec. 18 in the final figure, "in all, Spike's big gaming party is becoming less and less of a must see event for the industry's top fan," Variety concludes.
Hamfisted dialogue, lowest-common-denominator jokes with telegraphed punchlines, and presenters butchering video game titles would seem to redound to that.
In core advertising demographics, however, the VGAs made some impressive strides: Men 18-34 showed a 15 percent increase: adults of both genders, 18-49, were up 12 percent and adults 18-34 were up 5 percent.
How Did Spike's VGAs Do Ratings-Wise? [Variety via RipTen]
[image by Getty]