Only a few hundred people were allowed inside of the Hammerstein last week during Sony’s PlayStation 4 unveiling, which means if you wanted to hear first-hand news, you probably watched the livestream provided by Ustream. The stream didn’t go without a few hitches as we experienced the audio going in and out from time to time, but overall, it was an acceptable experience. But just how many people tuned into Sony’s big PlayStation 4 reveal?
According to Ustream’s CEO Brad Hunstable who spoke to Engadget, the live-streaming video service counted around eight million people tuning into Sony’s PlayStation 4 event, with one million concurrent views at its peak. During the two hour event, the average viewer stuck around for one hour, which is three times as long as the normal Ustream viewer only sticks around a live stream for 20 minutes.
Eight million viewers is a really impressive number when you consider how niche gaming still is compared to other forms of entertainment. To compare, U2’s concert that streamed on YouTube three years ago had 10 million viewers and its stream held up throughout the entire program. If Ustream is partnering with PlayStation 4, they need to make sure their infrastructure is ready for the onslaught of PS4 gamers who want to stream all of their gaming experiences online at all times.
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