Microsoft showed off several key games today that will be a part of its launch strategy for the new Xbox Series X consoles coming later this year. And more than two million viewers tuned in to see their first glimpse of the lineup.
Across both Twitch and YouTube, the Xbox Games Showcase brought in large numbers, even though some of the content was only supposed to be broadcast on one of the platforms.
Twitch coverage peaked at 1.8 million viewers, with an average of around 1.1 million throughout the two-hour showcase, according to Esports Charts. The presentation also brought in more than one million live viewers across all of its broadcasts, including the pre-show.
YouTube was supposed to have exclusivity for the Xbox Games Showcase pre-show where some smaller games were revealed and updates were provided, but that only stopped Microsoft from broadcasting it. More than 300,000 people were watching channels that were re-streaming that YouTube content on Twitch, according to esports journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau.
Ryan “Fwiz” Wyatt, the head of YouTube Gaming, even chimed in on this situation, saying this could lead to DMCA takedowns and further action against Twitch partners in the future.
“Not sure it’s a joke on YouTube,” Fwiz said. “Exclusive content (pre-show) being ripped from YouTube and streaming it on another platform warrants DMCA take downs and implications for partnered streamers on Twitch, which is unfortunate. There’s hundreds of thousands watching on YouTube, too.”
In the future, broadcast exclusivity could lead to an inability to re-stream on other platforms. But it’s unclear if that means YouTube streamers could still broadcast over the content if it’s YouTube exclusive.
Compared to the PlayStation 5 reveal stream last month, Xbox didn’t compete with the viewership numbers. Sony brought in around 7,270,523 viewers across all platforms, including 214 Twitch rebroadcasts.
