Games media’s ‘Big Four’ gorge on sensational E3

The real winner of E3 wasn’t one of the squabbling console manufacturers – but the hundreds of journalists writing about them.

UK games media sites saw massive audience spikes during last week’s expo.

IGN UK, Eurogamer, CVG and GameSpot UK all told MCV that the two new consoles drove excitement and debate to new levels.

The industry relies upon E3 to reinvigorate excitement around gaming. There are far more efficient ways to distribute information, but without the bright lights, exec posturing and dramatic on-stage reveals it’d be far less engrossing,” said CVG editor Andy Robinson, who says the site saw record traffic with page views up 50 per cent from E3 2012.

IGN’s Rich Keen told us the UK site had 24 per cent new user traffic.

The PS4 vs Xbox One debate was fierce,” he said. Our user poll on who won E3 generated 300,000 votes and 23,000 comments. The conversation isn’t over yet.”

Video is now the core of many sites, with IGN and GameSpot benefitting from live day-long broadcasts.

Video is key, from the press conferences to our own live presentations from our own E3 stage,” said Geoff Inns, MD of CBS Interactive.

Eurogamer also made great gains as its parent launched a US site.

Our live reporting gifted us the biggest days over the show,” said Simon Maxwell, group publishing director of Gamer Network. Uplifts weren’t just seen on site, but in YouTube views, user comments, click throughs: E3 was big on all fronts.”

GAMES MEDIA’S DAY IN THE SUN

Tuesday June 11th, the opening day of E3, was the biggest on record for key UK sites.

IGN: June 11th was IGN UK’s highest-trafficking day to date with 499,000 unique users, 3m page views, 530,000 video views, and 24 per cent of traffic from new users. (Data: Google Analytics)

CVG: The Tuesday set a new single-day record for CVG, with page views up 88 per cent from the best day at E3 2012, and unique visitors up 41 per cent. CVG Mobile traffic page views were up 130 per cent and unique visitors up 71 per cent.

Eurogamer: 2013’s was the biggest E3 ever for all Gamer Network sites, with the biggest week of traffic in the firm’s history. Most of its sites delivered over 100 per cent year-on-year user growth, with some as much as 300 per cent up.