A new poll by The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley has shown that around 37% rated the show a D or lower despite impressive viewership.
The rating is a stark contrast to last year’s show, in which 44.4% rated it an A, and 16.1% gave it a D or lower, out of a total of 183,586 votes. At the time of writing, Keighley’s latest poll has 276,000 votes, with 16.8% voting the show an A, while 36.7% voting it a D or below.
Its poll ratings seemingly didn’t affect the show’s popularity, though, with Insider Gaming seeing its official YouTube channel at one point accumulate over 1.3 million live concurrent views. Keighley will almost certainly be sharing the official numbers soon, with the show once again topping the year prior.
A Disappointing Second Half
Comments on Keighley’s poll applauded the production value, but criticised the pacing, particularly in the second half of the show, which is a sentiment that has been reflected by the wider community.
On the poll itself, content creator ‘Synth Potato’, whose comment has over 14,000 likes, said on X in response to Keighley’s poll, “What exactly were y’all smoking when you decided a free-to-play hero shooter was a worthy show closer, bro.”
“The final hour of the show was seriously badly paced and lacked any exciting moments; it badly needed a final surprise. The other two hours were great though!”
It’s worth noting that people often criticise The Game Awards in particular for being a glorified ad show, with Keighley himself saying the balance between ads, game trailers, and awards is always tricky to navigate.
Wide reports say that The Game Awards charges up to $1 million per game trailer for the show, so with money like that floating around, it isn’t difficult to see why a balance is difficult.
What did you think of this year’s The Game Awards and what rating would you give? Head to the Insider Gaming Discord Server and let us know!
There is much more TGA 2025 news to catch up on, such as Star Wars Galactic Racer being revealed, Phantom Blade Zero getting a release date, and Deadpool coming to Marvel Rivals in 2026.
Tom Henderson is Insider Gaming's Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. When he's not running one of the industry's leading independent video game websites, he's probably playing an FPS like Call of Duty,…
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