The Game Awards producer and host Geoff Keighley has announced the viewing figures for The Game Awards 2019.

Posting the announcement to Twitter, Keighley stated “We’re honored to announce a record 45 million livestreams for the 2019 show, an increase of 73% over last year. The gaming industry keep growing. And I finally got to meet Beaker.”

The official Twitter account for The Game Awards revealed it was specifically 45.2 million viewers. It should be noted the enclosed image in both tweets shows 72%, though the math shows the former is more accurate. The Game Awards 2018 had a reported viewership of 26 million, over double the prior year’s viewership.

The Game Awards started life in 2003 as the Spike Video Game Awards, later changed to the VGAs, then VGX in its last year. While the show had become increasingly low-brow, sponsorship-driven, and had no clear direction on who the target audience was, the final show in 2013 was the nail in the coffin.

Co-host, comedian, and actor Joel McHale was poorly received. His dry, sarcastic humor and lack of professionalism came across to many as though he had utter contempt for the show and gamers. Many of his jokes were also deemed offensive to certain groups [1, 2, 3, 4].

Keighley had wanted to create a “video game Oscars” ceremony for quite some time, and in 2014, he produced his own successor to Spike’s award show–though with a very different tone. The show has lasted since 2014, and has been coupled with announcements and reveals for new video games.

You can find the nominees and winners for The Game Awards 2019 here.

What did you think of this year’s Video Game Awards? Sound off in the comments below!