As publishers geared up for the largest gaming expo in the world, they released over 80 trailers of the most highly-anticipated game releases. E3 provides a platform for publishers to increase the anticipation of their upcoming releases by releasing official game trailers, partnering with gaming influencers via sponsored content and giving fans a sneak peek of what’s on the horizon. However, uploads referencing E3 content uploaded during the same time period (including UGC) had a total of 575M views (16.8M engagements) and had an audience that was 6.6x more engaged than the average YouTuber. The top gameplay uploads revolved around action/action-adventure games (15% of YT uploads) followed by role-playing games (4%). E3 2017: Top Publisher Content on YouTube From June 1st, 2017 – June 17th, 2017, Electronic Arts (EA) had the most views during this period (29M) and the highest average views per video (2.8M) across their released E3 content on YouTube compared to the other major publishers. E3 2017: Live Video Content It’s no surprise that most, if not all, of the top gaming publishers had some sort of skin in the game when it came to posting live content. The number of live content uploads also increased (+256%) compared to 2016. E3 2017: Sponsored Video Content Live content made up ~13% of sponsored content uploaded on YT between June 1 and June 17th. This type of content is growing along a number of metrics including views, engagements and uploads. Game on!
The biggest event for gamers all over the world has come and gone, but the insights are here to stay. As publishers geared up for the largest gaming expo in the world, they released over 80 trailers of the most highly-anticipated game releases.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, also known as E3, is critical to game publishers because it’s the premiere gaming expo of the year and is known by many gamers and influencers in the gaming community attracting over 50,000 attendees each year (and growing). E3 provides a platform for publishers to increase the anticipation of their upcoming releases by releasing official game trailers, partnering with gaming influencers via sponsored content and giving fans a sneak peek of what’s on the horizon. This is also an opportunity to inform future distribution and marketing strategies by experimenting with different mediums, formats (including live content and sponsored content), and trailer releases.
E3 2017: Overall Content on YouTube
At Tubular, we took a look at overall E3 content on YouTube from 2016 to 2017, and found a few interesting insights. Total uploaded E3 content increased by +24% compared to 2016 during the same time period. This year’s official E3 YouTube content (85 videos) had a total of 80M views and 1.5M engagements from June 1st – June 17th. However, uploads referencing E3 content uploaded during the same time period (including UGC) had a total of 575M views (16.8M engagements) and had an audience that was 6.6x more engaged than the average YouTuber. This shows that there is a demand for this type of content especially among the different gameplay categories.
The top gameplay uploads revolved around action/action-adventure games (15% of YT uploads) followed by role-playing games (4%). For all action/action-adventure games content uploaded during this time period, we’d expect about each video to have ~87K views after 30 days. Even though this doesn’t seem substantial, this content’s audience is 4.4x as engaged as the average YouTuber compared to 2.2x for the official content.
We also saw that the sweet spot for video duration for action game content for both views and engagement hovered between 5 – 7 minutes. But, if you’re a publisher who prioritizes engagement above views, then you’d want to publish content between 10 – 12 minutes. Similarly, role-playing games had a similar 30-day viewership and engagement (86K and 4.2x respectively). However, for optimal views and engagement, the sweet spot for video duration for role-playing games is between 3 – 5 minutes.
E3 2017: Top Publisher Content on YouTube
From June 1st, 2017 – June 17th, 2017, Electronic Arts (EA) had the most views during this period (29M) and the highest average views per video (2.8M) across their released E3 content on YouTube compared to the other major publishers. The…
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