Nintendo's Direct "Dominated" E3 2021, Peaking At 3.1 Million Viewers

Ohmygod, I was one of those people!!!!

I had it up on 3 devices at once Lol

Ratings are what it’s about.

@WoomyNNYes

So, at its peak Nintendo hit three million, was that for BOTW2 or people hearing about Metroid and signing in to see it?

Lol, Capcom didn't even place.

Interesting that Xbox had their most viewed E3 ever and so many people are still calling for E3 to end.

All the scalpers were watching to see what to pre order.

After a year of pandemic, I was pleased Nintendo's offering seemed somewhat normal.

As much as I do like Nintendo leading in some kind of E3 statistic, viewers don't really mean much. That means enough people liked the potential of the broadcast enough to tune in, did they actually like the final product when all was said and done? You need to measure that with likes.

I didn't even know Devolver Digital had one, and I thought I was paying very close attention to E3

I felt like this Nintendo Direct had something for everyone. There was something for Mario fans, Zelda fans, Metroid fans, Shin Megami Tensei fans and they even managed to bring back Advance Wars.

And Metroid Dread has been #1 best selling game on Amazon ever since. Gotta respect it. Metroid finally getting its due.

@PLATINUM7
Some people just don’t like others having fun.

e3 rocks. Individual conferences may be hit or miss, but collectively there’s always stuff to be excited for, and it’s one time a year we can actually get hyped and have something to look forward to.

Yes. The bought off video game media means nothing. Nintendo won the e3, the fans have spoken. Metroid, Advance Wars, Wario, Smash, Zelda, and Mario Party. Great show Nintendo.

@Bolt_Strike Likes? What are you a boomer? E3 knows you measure stuff in pogs.

Even though people might be disappointed about Kirby, Fire Emblem, Bayonetta, Pokemon and Donkey Kong not being shown at E3 I'm sure we'll get another Direct before the end of year so there's still hope for it to come.

Cool for Nintendo and everybody else. Except me. Because the only game I really crave (SO MUCH) is Tony Hawk. But the gameplay in the direct did not look too good sadly.
And to top it all, eve the homescreen icon uploaded by Activision is blurry:
http://www.switchiconshowdown.com/detail.php?id=5959

Someone please tell me that everything will be ok anyway.

Props to Devolver. Usually it's relegated to the side and practically nobody watches their shows but this year was so bad that people lined up to watch lol

For me, Wholesome Indie Direct is the winner.

Does have to do because folks were present at the event this year?

@Yanina everything will be ok!

…

If you play on PS5

😁

@AgentGuapo Haha. Evil.

Proves that E3 isn't having an identity crisis. Rather than being just an expo, it has basically become a holiday for the games industry (as it should be). A perfect set of days where developers and publishers come together to showcase their stuff and connect communities together, rather than having all these separate presentations with one or two connections.

Congrats to Nintendo it was a great show. But i do believe these numbers may be higher because Nintendo told people not to co-stream so it was just official channels broadcasting. Xbox one the other hand was co-streamed with multiple big streams which probably split the viewer base.

Either way i personally think Nintendo had the much better show.

Love e3, really helps set up what games I plan to get for the Fall / Winter months and teasers for games a few years out. Having so many developers and publishers, it can be hard to follow EVERY game event, so I mostly keep on eye on E3 then the Game Awards in December, with the occasional direct style videos the console makers put out

E3 was a bit rough around the edges, but, considering covid ruining timelines and Sony completely abandoning the event, I think it turned out fine. If last year proved anything, it's that conferences happening in scattershot fashion at random times are a terrible idea. Half of the interesting announcements that would have been at E3 last year were announced via tweet instead.

Anyway, Nintendo had a great conference, and I love how positive the reception has been overall. I've never been happier as a Nintendo fan.

I find it funny how some people didn’t think this was a fantastic direct. We got to see a significant amount of game play for the next Zelda, which I suspect will be Holiday 2021, since Nintendo will want to have some demoing of new stuff. (Unless they did spring and simply figured people know enough from having played the last game.

The new Mario Party will be huge. The Metroid game looks awesome. I might even try it. (Though I think I’m gonna try playing Super Metroid first. Then maybe Samus returns on 3DS. (I kinda hate my 3DS the screen is so small!)

There was a decent mix of third party stuff too. Overall I thought this was one of the most even E3 directs Nintendo has had.

I think it only counts as a win if the watcher saw what they wanted to see.

I was watching for a switch pro announcement. My mood sadly went south afterwards.

@Kiwi_Unlimited Nintendo specifically said that they were focusing on software. It’s your fault if you were disappointed.

Rumours have the Switch Pro launch timed for September, which would mean if it’s announced it would be at the earliest announced in an august direct. Nintendo isn’t going to give up on selling Switches all summer, because after it’s announced their unit sales will drop unless they have tons of stock of the new one.

To be honest with the current chip shortage, unless Nintendo pre bought everything they could need I could see the Switch Pro getting put off.

(Though I would love one specifically for 4K Super sampling.)

Nintendo had the games I’m more interested in. But Microsoft did indeed have the better presentation though and I can appreciate that.
And now, in a few hours, we’ll see what they have to show in their extended showcase.

Is E3 still going on, or did it finish up?

Forza 5 highly anticipated? Are the adding new gameplay to a car simulation or is it just because of graphics.

@Bolt_Strike Then again, people's expectations were impossible to match. Like, I'm talking literally impossible.

The general consensus based on thousands of comments I've seen during the first two weeks of June appeared to be that it'd be garbage unless we got: BotW 2 gameplay footage and 2021 release date, Splat3 gameplay footage, Switch Pro reveal and release date, SMT V release date, Bayonetta 3 gameplay footage and release date, a new IP with seriously innovative gameplay, a Zelda anniversary collection with ALTTP/TWW/some other Zelda game(s), massive revamps to the online service and more.

And of course we didn't get all of this. It was obvious.

I also don't know what people expected for the Zelda 35th year anniversary, they're already working on Skyward Sword and BotW2. The Game & Watch emu unit was a very nice novel gesture towards the people who have been fans the longest, and watching a few of my favorite streamers cry tears of joy at the nod towards them was honestly worth it.

@GrailUK It's an open world racing game, so it's pretty anticipated. Most racing games are instanced as heck with loading screens between literally everything.

Oh look the no co-streaming thing worked.

@Blizzia Well, I'm sure it will be as good as all the other ones, so everyone should be happy.

@GrailUK So far it is looking good, but you know how Xbox and Playstation fans are. The game doesn't feature full ray-tracing during gameplay, and it only supports native 4k at 30 fps (dynamic 4k at 60 fps though).

And apparently those communities aren't satisfied unless the game is native 4k 60 fps at all times with full raytracing.

Not sure how they expect that in machines with parts worse than entry range gaming desktops, but well, they do.

@Ryu_Niiyama @TomDobo Was that really the case? I might be missing something, but a lot of YouTube channels (like SpawnWave, PlayerEssence and GameXplain) streamed the event at the same time as Nintendo's official channels. There might have been some limitations to their streams though, didn't watch any of them during the event, just a bit before and after, and they all had a lot of viewers. Didn't IGN also stream it, and they always get a lot of views?

Anyway... doesn't matter. The important thing is the games being presented and everyone at least getting one thing to get excited about out of the whole E3.

Its too bad it was a disappointment.

@Bolt_Strike I'd disagree there. Peak viewers means simultaneous and watching the youtube stream the viewer count increased over the course of the announcements.

It means more people thought the direct was worth watching most, if not all the way through.

Whereas likes, someone could have pressed like when they saw Kazuya in the Nintendo Direct or Starfield in Xbox and then tuned out by the 2nd game. You can't count this as liking all the games.

So that’s why Nintendo didn’t want you to stream it anywhere else but their own site. They were having a secret competition.

Looks like the request for viewers to watch on official channels paid off in the exact way it was meant to payoff. It's almost as if all the bellyaching about it was just that vocal minority trying to make a scandal out of a reasonable request. 🤣

Nintendo Directs are almost always the most fun to watch since there’s always something new which hasn’t been leaked or revealed already .

And they do it in a more ‘fun’ way instead of a technical showcase kind of way.

Not to yuck the yum, but 3.1m seems like a paltry amount considering the size of the gaming audience overall. I suppose this just represents the hardcore mentalists (like all of us)? I suppose I’m getting used to seeing these ludicrous k pop figures with, like a billion people watching so and so….

Whatever your opinion of what both companies announced, MS was an hour and a half of little gameplay and a lot of waffle, Nintendo was 40 minutes of tightly edited footage of how their games played, and is more lighthearted. It makes the direct a joy to watch.

Plus there is no purchase decision making with the XBX. If you have gamepass you just get what they give you instead of choosing something over another.

The Nintendo E3 event hype was real. Too bad they manage to meet the expectations

@echoplex 2.7 million, not bad for a single game. They uploaded the gameplay reveal separately, which now sits at 6.5 million views.

Well yeah, Nintendo seems to be the one that gets it. Ubisoft had some good ones, but they waffled on movies, which NOBODY cares about, and both them and Square Enix are guilty of killing the pace with one game. I'd say that Xbox perhaps stood toe to toe with Nintendo this year, but it depends on whether you care more about Starfield/Halo, or Zelda/Metroid.

I’m 99.9% sure Microsoft owns a piece of e3. How on earth would they award forza with most anticipated game of the show, when there was Metroid dread and botw2? Too funny

That said, I did think the MS presentation was very good. Tbh I think Xbox is the way to go this time with the next gens

Guess focusing on GAMES on a GAMING expo works! Take note Take Two Interactive! It's truly not hard to comprehend.

'Most viewed' doesn't mean much. I'm disappointed in Nintendo this year - Xbox undoubtedly had the best showing. And I say that as a primary Nintendo/Switch gamer. Battlefield's showing alone blew most of what Nintendo had out of the water.
If you're not a Zelda, Mario or Metroid fan, this year's showing was just completely lackluster.

And before anyone says anything; no, I didn't look at any leaks and spoil it for myself beforehand. And no, I didn't go in expecting very much at all either. I don't normally have high expectations for Nintendo that can't be reached, but this year I certainly kept myself in check - knowing that Covid is going to have an effect. But still... it bothers me that games like Elden Ring, Battlefield and Redfall are being pushed out and we get... Mario Party? 2D Metroid? Game and Watch Zelda? Nintendo didn't even try to go for a new IP. They didn't even show us Splatoon 3, Pokemon Legends Arceus (I wasn't expecting to see it to be fair, but its still something to keep in mind), Bayonetta 3, Donkey Kong or Kirby. Some of which haven't had anything for awhile. Wario isn't even a full-fledged game worth 60 bucks and Mario Rabbids is produced by (and was shown off first by) Ubisoft.

I know they said they have a few other surprises that weren't being shown off today, but how anyone can believe this years E3 was "saved by Nintendo" is beyond me. Xbox started things off with a high bar and everything else got progressively weaker. Only Square Enix and Platinum Games had passible showings and everyone else just disappointed.

I will say that Sky: Children of Light coming to Switch is exciting though. At least there's that.

This doesn’t mean it’s a winner, just means a lot of people watched it.

To me it was exactly like the last series of Game of Thrones, it was awful and disappointing but a lot of people watched it

to me the biggest announcments were botw2 , avatar and FForigins

@Blooper987 But why?

Nintendomination vs Nintendoomed

Is anyone really surprised? Nintendo is usually the most anticipated, at least in my circles.

I remember when I saw "METROID DREAD" pop up on screen. My jaw dropped.

Of course, the gaming news outlets would try to get together to pick their own winner, but the numbers don't lie. Here's hoping for another great show from Nintendo next year!

Good on Nintendo, that Metroid Dread/BOTW 2 announcement was most welcome. At least it wasn't a disaster like the Take-Two E3 conference where they revealed no games and it was just a bunch of out-of-touch boomers talking about "muh diversity and equity".

Wish Nintendo would've given a small spot for Fuga: Melodies of Steel though.

@Joker1234 plus, other mini directs will probably crop up between now and the end of the year.

I don't know why people downplay this. It was the most viewed show on E3. Nintendo always captivates everyone. And they delivered. They only showed hits, and all of them are coming this year, with the exception of the sequel to BotW. Nintendo won, and they rubbed their dicks on everyone else's faces.

@DavidMac

Everything you said is true. Since nintendo has a history of denying so as to attempt to surprise us, hopefully I'm the only one who expected more. Otherwise, a lot of personal opinions may be that they failed. Hype trains have a way of getting away from a company if they fail to meet constantly growing expectations.

I'm getting off topic. You ARE right. I agree. With any luck, I really am the minority on these expectations.

At what point does that mean they "Dominated"? Having the most people watching in no way means they dominated. What with all this stupid head lines? Xbox dominated with content, gameplay, surprises, Gamepass content, new unexpected games. Nintendo showed 2 new games and a bunch of stuff we already knew about.

I get this is a Nintendo based site but Jesus at least have some logic.

Interesting how reviewers like one thing, the public likes something else.

While I’m disappointed by this Direct, I’m so excited by the number of people who have gotten into Switch in the last few years. I have friends who swore never to buy a Nintendo product who are gaming on their Switch multiple times a week. I hope Nintendo finds a way to stay with them and bring them along as fans, rather than dumping them like the Wii -> Wii U transition.

Nintendo e3 was a disappointment in my eyes. I really need a switch pro.

I wonder how many of Nintendo's views were scalpers trying to time the Switch Pro reveal? At least they got Amiibo and a Game & Watch so it wasn't a waste of their time, lol.

@PLATINUM7 Seriously! That's cool info it was Xbox's most watch E3! The internet, media (including this very network) is busy opining that E3 is dead and there's no need for it, and it's so lackluster, and meanwhile we have the actual data showing it's more popular. If I was in these company's marketing departments, I'm pretty sure I'd be following where the viewers are, not where the press says they should be. 3M viewers for Nintendo, Microsoft's biggest E3 yet. Hopefully this means E3 is here to stay!

....I wonder how many views the last State of Play got.... Someone inside Sony has got to be looking at these numbers and wondering "WHY are why not participating in this anymore, again?!"

@earthinheritor "Dominated" in this case means in terms of results, and I don't think we can debate that 3M views certainly counts as the dominant audience. Different comparison than "best presentation" which I'd say were both pretty good, but MS has the edge there.

Certainly if MS had their most viewed E3 to date, they absolutely stomped it, too, but you can't argue attendee numbers with who filled the virtual stadium this time. Of course, MS has had a lot of big moments over the past year including a console launch where Nintendo's said absolutely nothing for a year, so there was more pent-up demand for seeing any new Nintendo information than Xbox. That certainly contributed. Plus Nintendo is worldwide and huge in Japan, while XBox has more limited territory coverage and is small (but growing) in Japan. The potential market alone means Nintendo has, by default, more potential viewers.

The important takeaway here though is that both companies posted extremely impressive E3's and are therefore likely to continue sponsoring and participating in E3 is a high priority marketing event for them. That's good for us! Maybe also good for eventually convincing Sony to return. It's really weird having one of the big 3 leave the whole show to their competitors, especially while those competitors are posting impressive results as far as engagement is concerned. In my mind right now, as a Switch, PS5, and XSX owner, Sony kind of doesn't exist. Nintendo & Xbox are the world of gaming right now. Sony's buzz of R&C launching got overshadowed by the E3 hype machine for everyone but them, and their next big game is "maybe, probably, Holiday 2021."

It was genuinely hilarious to see Nintendo haters try to discredit the fact that Nintendo got the biggest viewership. Especially those from Twitter and Reddit. I hope those people stay salty, your tears are delicious!

Yes indeed, the haters' salt with this sweet presentation make a sweet and salty delicacy.

@Quarth I don’t work at Nintendo so I don’t have numbers but I would speculate any attempt to funnel to official channels would boost their numbers. Sure you will get the contrary people but many more would just...watch the official stream rather than miss out. Many of the media outlets don’t co stream so much as live blog which was still ok.

Either way it wasn’t the big controversy people tried to make it out to be. I mean how dare a company want traffic on the official channels that their marketing team put together rather than handing off metrics to random youtube influencers.

@Ryu_Niiyama Yeah, I agree with you. I watched the official stream myself, as I didn't want to get disturbed by some overhyped nerd sitting in a sponsored gaming chair, screaming exaggeratedly into his mic, just to bring in views. 😋 I can enjoy some of the gaming channels on YouTube, but I find that a lot of these so called influencers are just faking excitement and using clickbait titles to draw in clicks and donations. YouTube is too commercial these days, the real passion from the early days of the platform is kinda gone.