The Game Awards will be streamed live on Amazon’s Prime Video this December. This is the first time the Jeff Keley-hosted video game awards show has partnered with a subscription streaming service for an event.
Since its inception in 2014, the awards show celebrating the gaming industry has been streamed annually on free platforms including YouTube, Twitch, X, TikTok and select platforms in China, with the 2024 edition having over 154 million livestreams across all platforms.
This year’s show will feature a livestream on Amazon’s Prime Video in addition to regular broadcasts on YouTube and Amazon-owned Twitch.
Game Awards 2025 will be broadcast live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on December 11th from 5-8pm PT/8-11pm ET. The show will feature world premieres, major new game announcements, musical performances, and awards recognizing the year’s best games and creators. According to TGA, cast members from Amazon’s TV series “Fallout,” which will air its second season next month, will also be on stage during the event.
Additionally, for the first time, the Game Awards will be livestreamed globally in 2K (1440p) on Twitch, giving creators the ability to rebroadcast their shows live to their communities. For the 2025 show, the event will include Twitch Drops, where Twitch viewers who watch for at least 30 minutes will receive exclusive in-game content and a limited edition TGA chat badge.
As part of the expanded partnership, Amazon will be launching a dedicated shop for The Game Awards merchandise, and during the live broadcast, viewers can expect “prime-only, limited-time deals on nominated games, new releases, hardware, and more to be revealed in real time.”
“The great news is that this is additive and we can continue to air it anywhere we already air the show. And we’re adding Prime Video as a partner, which is really exciting for us,” Keighley, founder and CEO of The Game Awards, told Variety. “We’ve had a lot of conversations with people over the years, and we don’t think there’s any way we can completely take this show off YouTube and Twitch, where it was born in 2014.”
Regarding how Amazon’s involvement in the show will impact the behind-the-scenes process of the show itself, Keiley said: “It’s important for people to know that it hasn’t changed our show at all. We’re still making the same show. I’ve finished my life working for television networks, and I’ve had TV people give me input and input on what I want the show to be. This is still The Game. It’s the exact same show. They’re really just a distribution outlet and they’re really allowing us to build the show the way we’ve always done it. We haven’t changed anything about the show to accommodate the new platform.”
Keighley said negotiations for a streaming deal with Amazon began earlier this year and that the Game Awards team was “very receptive” to the non-exclusive deal they wanted.
“Our vision is to bring gaming to as many people around the world as possible and share the magic of gaming with the widest possible audience,” said Keighley. “And I know a lot of video game companies can post trailers on YouTube and Twitch, but what more can we do for that? That’s why we’re able to do big events like this and reach a bigger audience. So the fact that all these games, these announcements, all the award moments, will hopefully be seen by an even wider audience with Prime Video is so exciting for us. ‘s, especially the global reach, is really, really amazing. This is kind of a challenge and a learning curve for all of us. “How big of an audience are there on these platforms?” ”
“It’s funny to me, because I keep going back to when Jeff and I first started doing this, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s an online show, oh, it’s a streaming show,’ and over the years, it’s been a trend and a lot of award-winning shows are now on Amazon, Hulu, Peacock,” said Kimmy Kim, executive producer of The Game Awards. “So, for me, it’s more refreshing to see how streaming shows are evolving programming. And I’d like to think we’ve made a small contribution to streaming.”
