Sony’s latest State of Play broadcast – which included trailers for Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter 6, and Final Fantasy 16 – has been watched more times than any of the company’s E3 press conferences. With 2.52 million views, it’s officially surpassed E3 2016’s 2.51 million views, and is rising. Meanwhile, the firm’s previous two September PlayStation Showcases sit above both with 4.9 million views (2020) and 3.9 million views (2021).
While there are clear caveats to take into consideration here – PlayStation’s YouTube channel has grown significantly over the past five or so years, and E3 press conferences have historically been broadcast via a variety of different channels – it perhaps helps to demonstrate why Sony has changed tact. E3 press conferences are notoriously expensive affairs to produce, but there’s very little of that cost associated with a traditional, pre-recorded State of Play.
It just goes to show that the Japanese giant is having more success than ever by largely cutting out conventions and marketing directly to its consumers. While we may sometimes miss the old days, it’s reaching more people than ever before with its new approach. And this success isn’t just limited to Sony either: 5.8 million fans tuned in to watch the most recent multi-game Nintendo Direct, while this month’s Xbox Showcase has attracted 3.9 million views in approximately ten days.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 36
@munstre Not sure if it's the most watched ever, but 15 million views would suggest it's right at the top, yes!
The State of Play along with FFVII 25th Anniversary Celebration Broadcast were my personal highlights of the summer announcements. They had the bulk of Japanese franchises I wanted to hear from and did not disappoint.
As the years go by, the industry as a whole grows - a lot. It's only natural that the latest events will spark the interest of more and more people.
Probably a lot of people skipped the livestream because the SoP in March was so bad and then they heard that it was actually good and watched it
I think we're comparing apples with oranges here.
E3 2016 was a long time ago, and as you say there were so many ways to watch it 6 years ago, including in person.
Also, the E3 2016 video is almost 2 hours long!
The Resident Evil 4 trailer alone has more views than the SoP. I could not use that to draw conclusions about RE4s popularity compared to everything shown in the SoP broadcast, for example.
It's difficult to determine exact stats given there'll be people who watched these events outside of the official PS stream. For example the Xbox E3 2018 conference had 943k views via the Xbox youtube meanwhile the same stream had 1.4 million views on the Gamespot youtube.
@Grumblevolcano Agreed. It's almost impossible to know the exact number of any showcase given the multiple number of ways to watch nowadays.
I still think that there's a place for live events but personally, I was hooked on succinct, prerecorded shows since the first Nintendo Direct.
"Why isn't Playstation going to be at GamesCom?"
This is why
@Grimwood Make E3 Great Again! 😁
It was a very good State of Play though tbf.
What Jim Ryan's PlayStation division forgets is E3 and other trade shows are as much about engaging with fans as they are about game reveals. They may save a lot of money doing just State of Play events, but they have abysmal engagement with fans. In my view, they could get doing so much more.
Imagine the God of War Ragnarok State of Play numbers lol
@munstre
Announcement of Nintendo Switch has 48 million views on youtube
https://youtu.be/f5uik5fgIaI
@BeerIsAwesome
The press event is not engaging with fans, yes, but then the platform holders have booths set up with game demos and such as well for the fans to play. Right? I can't be imagining that.
Pretty depressing really when you know the reality is we’re never getting E3 formula of Microsoft one day, Sony the next, and then Nintendo. Those days were simply awesome for gamers…3days of non-stop excitement for those really into it.
Obviously these make more sense financially for Sony. But their absence has definitely taken something away from the gamers.
Be interesting to see if Xbox sticks to its ‘12 months’ thing. The first one was always going to be abit flat. If they can refrain from revealing games later down the line at gamescom and the like then next years should hopefully offer some excitement and new reveals next years E3 at least.
Number of views only tell part of the story. The internet, particularly social media, have completely altered the landscape for marketing. There isn’t an event that Sony could engage that would build hype in the way social media does all on its own. There’s a reason that, from bars and restaurants all the way to Dentist offices, being “instagramable” is a key consideration in any modern marketing plan. And E3 is/was marketing for Sony, nothing more. As much as I enjoyed E3, Sony did the right thing. Given the data, I’m sure there was no other option for those in power.
Well, the proof is in the pudding; you put on a good show, people will want to watch it.
Sony's last E3 show was 4 years ago during a wind-down/transition of consoles. I'd find it odd if they didn't have more viewers now than 4 years ago.
And as many others have said, SoP is pretty much a direct presentation from their channel. E3 was watched in many places, not just Sony's youtube, but also, IGN, Gamespot, Twitch, Mixer (RIP), the E3 official stream, telecast, movie theaters, and a number of others, so we'd need a combination of all of them to even compare.
@Jimmer-jammer The mere mention of being "instagrammable" wants me to find the nearest access to the nuclear launch codes and put an end to the Earth's misery.
....But...
It's not like the big conventions don't spawn massive social media hype trains, so the two aren't mutually exclusive.
Give us a god of war 2, state of play and will be interesting to see the numbers.
This is a non-comparison, the industry’s in a completely different place along with social media. The YouTube trailers can be delivered embedded on websites like this, Instagram, Twitter etc. Full videos can be embedded at specific timestamps too which is way more convenient than watching a full 2 hour press conference.
@__jamiie Definitely was the right choice to move away from live conferences but I do feel that for the most part Sony's approach to digital events in 2020 was better than the other years of Sony digital events.
I mean we are so desperate to get some news from Sony, even a state of play is anticipated
I really don't miss E3. I can understand the people who do but when Nintendo started doing 'direct' I thought it to be a better approach simply because I (we) didn't have to wait a while year and sit through 90 minutes per platform to see the announcements.
Bitesize news every few months. Easy and quick to digest and I'm glad Sony have adopted a similar approach. In the end I didn't bother watching E3 and just read the highlights for 5 minutes instead, just don't have that kind of time.
I know many don't share my sentiment but I feel in the age of streaming it is an unnecessary relic that should go, especially given how much cost and effort it requires.
PlayStation got the juice.PlayStation is the king 👑. 🐐. When PlayStation do something the 🌎 world pay attention to it. Word up son
That’s because the never share anything ever so the people are hungry … they want information and aren’t getting it so the expectation every state of play is so high and usually leads to disappointment
@NEStalgia You and me both! Can’t say I fully understand it but it’s the reality we live in.
Fair point, though the cost of a state of play and an E3 presence aren’t really comparable in my mind.
@Jimmer-jammer Vanity is timeless.... But never so amplified...
Yeah certainly the big shows are much costlier. Tough as was said above, there's also value in connecting with fans. There's a lot of people here that dislike Phil Spencer, or his "cult of personality", but it works. He connects with people and gains customers through it. Sony could use a bit of charm offensive at times for sure 😃
Another consideration is that Sony fans are so starved of communication and clarity from the company they are eagerly awaiting any break in their silence and tone deaf direction, or maybe a hint of the true generations they all told us they believed in to garner hype for the Ps5.
I think there are multiple factors really. But the biggest one is that it's now easier than ever to watch these streams. They are available in multiple different languages.
Finally, gaming is more popular now than it ever has been. I miss how United the gaming front used to be, whilst also being competitive.
Crazy what happens when you actually have good content in a presentation.
No thats a lie. Xbox Showcase got alot more viewers than the recent playstation state of play lol https://twitter.com/dornell00371165/status/1539733881703878656?s=20&t=HCT_Iuzlo5ghOfYGdVOF9Q
because were all waiting on days gone 2 and last of us 3 reveals 😂
Removed - trolling/baiting
Interesting that both Nintendo and Xbox amassed more viewers with their digital shows than PlayStation did, yet last generation's market leader was PS. While the jury is still out for this generation, the demand for PS5 remains incredibly high still. I wonder why PlayStation's popularity doesn't correlate with a higher number of viewers for its digital showcases.
Honestly don't care about E3 or SoP. I don't need my balls tickled with highlights that may or may not represent the full game. When it comes out, I'll look into it and buy it if it appeals to me. I don't need teasers and trailers months or years in advance when it's completely irrelevant.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...