3 Million People Watched the FIA-Certified GT Championship World Finals

Great starting numbers. 👍

I’d expect as much with how lucrative the whole thing has been. A lot of effort put in from all parties and the drivers really made it worth the while in that bombastic final race.

Also, in the paragraph where Kaz tries to differentiate between real motorsport and GT Sport being ‘real’, all I could think of was this. :lol:

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I want to believe. I really enjoyed all the content.

But the Youtube view counts sure do tell a different story. 67k for the Nations Cup livestream and 39k for the Manuf cup livestream in English. Is that enough? I'm not sure.
 
There a lot of GT Sport Players who don`t see the value in the FIA side of the Game and just want to play single player or lobbies which is there choice and there is nothing wrong with that. But to me GT Sport was meant to be different with the emphasis on Racing. Hopefully it will grow because the racing at the FIA was enjoyable.
 
I want to believe. I really enjoyed all the content.

But the Youtube view counts sure do tell a different story. 67k for the Nations Cup livestream and 39k for the Manuf cup livestream in English. Is that enough? I'm not sure.

But what other pipes were there?
 
I want to believe. I really enjoyed all the content.

But the Youtube view counts sure do tell a different story. 67k for the Nations Cup livestream and 39k for the Manuf cup livestream in English. Is that enough? I'm not sure.
Add the other language versions and then add the other stream sites that carried the races. Most of which are listed in the link in the first post.
 
I want to believe. I really enjoyed all the content.

But the Youtube view counts sure do tell a different story. 67k for the Nations Cup livestream and 39k for the Manuf cup livestream in English. Is that enough? I'm not sure.

It's a good view count,way bigger than the regionals and all this within one month,give it time and the Nations Cup will hit 100k on youtube(the nurburgring event hit 100k recently)
 
Personally I don't care for eSports in this format at all. I don't object to it but I would worry that servicing both an eSports platform and the more traditional set of players with the same game might compromise it for both. I think at the moment PD are doing a fairly good job of servicing both sets of players for now at least.
 
I’ve no interest in traditional e-sports. Even football which is my main sport. It may look the same but it’s a very different skill set between real and virtual.

That isn’t the case for circuit based motor racing. It’s a 1:1 recreation of the real thing. And as we saw a current F3 champion won the GT Sport title. This familiarity is bringing onboard both gamers and the motorsport community. I’ve heard nothing but high praise from both.
 
That isn’t the case for circuit based motor racing. It’s a 1:1 recreation of the real thing.

It just isn't though, on anything other than a superficial level at least. The skill set, risk, effort, cost, and sensory experience simply doesn't compare between racing in GT and racing in a real-life, or watching people do it either.

eSports make most sense to me when they offer a challenge that can't be replicated in the real world - whilst they try and replicate, they will pretty much always be worse than the real thing. They should innovate, not imitate.
 
Same here. My tactile familiarity with the race track appears to be the biggest factor in determining my level of interest and the shortened race format makes my attention matter more than a longer endurance race.
Honestly, going into it, I thought it would be boring and was just checking to see it for a few minutes but then an hour pass and I realize I was still watching it and found it entertaining.

Next year PD should have any issues iron out and it should be a better spectacle along with another year of updates
 
It just isn't though, on anything other than a superficial level at least. The skill set, risk, effort, cost, and sensory experience simply doesn't compare between racing in GT and racing in a real-life, or watching people do it either.

eSports make most sense to me when they offer a challenge that can't be replicated in the real world - whilst they try and replicate, they will pretty much always be worse than the real thing. They should innovate, not imitate.

I don't understand this viewpoint at all. The appeal of a racing sim is that it continues to approach reality, which is innovation in and of itself. In this sense, innovating and imitating can be the same thing in a virtual world, because nothing yet so accurately mimics real world experiences, and it never will. Also, I think everybody knows it's not a 1:1 recreation in the context of the comparison you draw, the risk and cost will never be the same so I'm not sure why they are being highlighted as a barrier to enjoyment. When you say innovate, not imitate, what does that look like to you? What do you suggest be done differently to move away from imitating and more towards innovating? Personally, it would upset me if the game started becoming less like reality each release. Reality has always been the ultimate and unattainable goal for video games, but innovation is what gets us closer to that vision and ultimately improves everyone's experience. This is not the case for all games, but certainly for a simulator....no?
 
People need to stop worrying about the numbers. Whatever the viewership count is; the point is the viewership numbers are promising for a year 1 event in a relatively nascent sport. IMHO, I think all in all it was a very positive first year for the GT FIA series. It only goes up from here.

Speaking of Forza racing championship. I've tried to watch some of the Forza stuff in the past, but something about it just didn't click. To me, Forza doesn't quite have the photo realism of Gran Turismo. Don't get me wrong, Forza is beautiful for sure, but it looks a tiny bit more artificial or something. Maybe it is the replays used, or the lighting? Not sure, but it doesn't seem to translate as well to television IMHO. The other problem I had was everyone was using a gamepad. Ugh. I mean, there is nothing wrong with that of course, but when GT and F1 series are using very nice cockpit/wheel set ups.....yeah, not a great look. I would like to see Turn 10 up their game in this area because there is a lot of potential with Forza and Microsoft backing their events. I'm greedy.....I want to watch all of these eSports events and see them all continue to grow.
 
3 million is not to shabby to be honest, and the production standards of the broadcasts were excellent.

With respect to motor racing as an e-sport then I firmly believe in the saying "build it, and they will come", and Sony is building it, putting money into it, and making it a real spectator sport, as opposed to just a participant sport. This is just the start.
 
It just isn't though, on anything other than a superficial level at least. The skill set, risk, effort, cost, and sensory experience simply doesn't compare between racing in GT and racing in a real-life, or watching people do it either.

eSports make most sense to me when they offer a challenge that can't be replicated in the real world - whilst they try and replicate, they will pretty much always be worse than the real thing. They should innovate, not imitate.

Well that argument doesn't really work,sim racing games will never achieve 1:1 realism it's a simulation of real life racing that can get people excited in the same way,yes it's very different but thats not the point.And like Kaz said,GTS isn't trying to take out real motorsports it's just wants its place together with real world racing.

Maybe it is the replays used, or the lighting?

That's exactly the reason,the lighting engine of GTS and the camera angles make for some pretty good eye candy which catches peoples eyes and makes them stay to watch the race,the lack of a Hud while changing the cameras also helps to maintain the immersion in the broadcast.Doesn't mean great racing can't happen in Forza(great racing can happen anywhere).

Was this because of people searching to find out who the delinquents running around the bar making "vroooom" noises were? ;)

Everyone was trying to find a gif of Adam dabbing.
 
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Visits to GTP from Monaco increased over 3,000% while everyone with the event was there. :lol:

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It's still a cool feeling to see people browsing the site on their mobile in person. :D

People need to stop worrying about the numbers. Whatever the viewership count is; the point is the viewership numbers are promising for a year 1 event in a relatively nascent sport. IMHO, I think all in all it was a very positive first year for the GT FIA series. It only goes up from here.

👍

Speaking of Forza racing championship. I've tried to watch some of the Forza stuff in the past, but something about it just didn't click. To me, Forza doesn't quite have the photo realism of Gran Turismo. Don't get me wrong, Forza is beautiful for sure, but it looks a tiny bit more artificial or something. Maybe it is the replays used, or the lighting? Not sure, but it doesn't seem to translate as well to television IMHO. The other problem I had was everyone was using a gamepad. Ugh. I mean, there is nothing wrong with that of course, but when GT and F1 series are using very nice cockpit/wheel set ups.....yeah, not a great look. I would like to see Turn 10 up their game in this area because there is a lot of potential with Forza and Microsoft backing their events. I'm greedy.....I want to watch all of these eSports events and see them all continue to grow.

It's the combo of the lighting engine and replay system in Forza. To accommodate the weather/ToD stuff, the lighting is noticeably flatter than, say, FH4. And the replay camera angles just don't work as well for the purposes of broadcast.

The gamepad approach is a conscious decision, IIRC: it's to make esports more accessible. Forcing a $1000+ setup on all competitors has the opposite effect to the average gamer. Less realistic? Absolutely. But it puts forward the "anybody can get involved" message a little clearer — even if we all know only the aliens can make it to these things. :P
 
It just isn't though, on anything other than a superficial level at least. The skill set, risk, effort, cost, and sensory experience simply doesn't compare between racing in GT and racing in a real-life, or watching people do it either.

eSports make most sense to me when they offer a challenge that can't be replicated in the real world - whilst they try and replicate, they will pretty much always be worse than the real thing. They should innovate, not imitate.

To your second point: The thing about real racing is that it's so expensive.

So the super fantastical aspect of these events is that they can use so many different cars on so many different tracks, whether fantasy or not. Cost there isn't a factor. Tires, testing, it's all free!

That's why these events are so interesting to watch besides the fact that there's more racing action going on.
 
For contrast i came across this



https://racer.com/2018/12/06/f1-esports-series-attracts-4-4-million-viewers/

Formula 1’s Esports series attracted over four million viewers through television and a dedicated live stream in 2018.

Nine of the 10 F1 teams entered this year’s Esports series, with only Ferrari absent as official outfits fought for a teams’ championship for the first time. After four online qualifying rounds earlier in the year, a pro draft saw the teams select drivers for their line-ups in July, with 16 of the 26 seats being filled through the draft.
 
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