Dismal Viewer Response Caused by a Mere 17-Minute Dedication to Developer Awards on the 2025 TGA Extravaganza
The Game Awards 2025 faced some of its most intense criticisms from viewers, who noted that with every passing year, the occasion is drifting further away from its developer-centric design to an extended reptilian concert of promotion. The main kind of criticism mainly revolved around the amount of time spent on actual award distribution.
Time-Allocation Analysis
As per the calculations by the viewers for the three-and-a-half-hour breakup, about 92% of some of the shows' witnessed purpose-were concerned about giving awards to developers and airing their short acceptance speeches. This came to be approximately 17 minutes in total.
Showing a good number of commercials while movie trailers were happenings, most of the runtime was taken up by airing commercials and trailers for different video games. Some of those trailers could be regarded as promotional placements in that sense, while a chunk of time allocation was also taken away by host Jeff Keighley.
Ratings from the Viewers Show an Unhappy Face
The very formant of the show would have become a punch bag for its ratings. Dissatisfaction magnitudes present in viewer ratings show that more than 60% of the audience voted against the show. This leaves the following breakdown:
- 2 points and lower: 38.9% of viewers
- 3 points: 21.4% of viewers
- 4 points: 24.6% of viewers
- 5 points (the highest): 15.1% of viewers
Viewer Feedback Drawn in Directly
Some comments from gamers that lend themselves to questioning the structural layout of the show and content:
"What on Earth were you doing that night, when you picked a free hero shooter for a worthy finale. The penultimate hour was drag city, with literally nothing exciting. The first two hours were great"
"Would love to see behind-the-scenes footage on what the winners did to earn their award. Celebrate Creativity, not Hype."
"Jeff, the show needs balance; fewer trailers and more awards time. Developers deserve to be honored for their phenomenal work properly; it deserves a ceremony, not a minor mention."
Next one, We need to wait and see if and how this huge viewer feedback will be considered by the organizers to change the template for next year event.
