The document summarizes a case study of an interactive Twitch extension developed by Muxy for The Game Awards 2017 live stream. The extension allowed viewers to vote on predicted winners and compete across streamer channels in a leaderboard. It was highly successful, driving a 202% increase in viewership and more viewer engagement compared to the previous year. The extension contributed significantly to making the event interactive and successful.

1. THE GAME AWARDS 2017 GETS INTERACTIVE
RESULTS
LEADERBOARD
LEADERBOARD
MY TEAM: LIRIK
Current Team Rank: 1 | Points: 45,432
Team Voters: 14,504
CASE STUDY
At Muxy, we build software that makes live event streams more fun and exciting for viewers
as well as more profitable for broadcasters and brands. In this case study, we will describe the
custom interactive Twitch extension Muxy designed and developed for The Game Awards 2017,
which constitutes a truly revolutionary step in the evolution of interactivity in live content.

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Described by some as the “Oscars of video games,”
The Game Awards are held annually in December and
constitute a major event for the video game industry.
THE PROBLEM
The Game Awards has included a live Twitch stream
since 2015, a logical choice for their event given the
prominence of Twitch in the gaming community. In
2017, Twitch launched its Extensions platform, which
allows approved software to run right on top of the
video player on Twitch. When The Game Awards
approached Twitch to work out the details of their
2017 live stream, Twitch recommended developing a
custom extension to drive viewership and make the
show more exciting and engaging for viewers.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
When The Game Awards expressed interest in developing an extension, Twitch suggested Muxy as a
potential developer due to Muxy’s existing history of success as a developer partner. Muxy’s first task
was to develop a concept for what the extension would do. Especially since this was the first project of
its kind undertaken by Twitch, the Muxy team took great care to think carefully through what features
would be successful from the different perspectives of The Game Awards, broadcasters, and viewers.
The key goal was to create an interactive experience that would be fun, exciting and engaging for
viewers while not overly distracting them from what was actually happening on the stream. Obviously,
tying the extension to what was happening in real time on stage was crucial. Simply creating a fun
on-screen minigame might get viewers to click and keep the stream running to keep playing, but it
wouldn’t necessarily enhance the viewing experience or encourage viewers to feel invested in the
results of the awards.
Muxy’s experience with the Twitch platform and audience had shown them that another important
factor was understanding and utilizing the unique relationship dynamic between Twitch streamers
and their viewers. Many viewers feel intense loyalty to their favorite streamers and enjoy competing
with other streamers’ channels. However, this competitiveness can reach a point where viewers
attempt to help their chosen channel by sabotaging other channels. It was known in advance that a
variety of different streamers would be “co-streaming” The Game Awards— playing the live video feed
on their Twitch channel with their opinions and commentary added. Therefore, establishing measures
to ensure fair and friendly competition between channels was critical to the extension’s success.
“With Extensions, the Twitch
community can interact in
ways that were never thought
possible... you now have
the power to truly impact
the streaming experience -
whether you’re a streamer or
viewer.”
- Twitch, “Extensions: A Revolution in
Live Streaming”

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MUXY’S SOLUTION
With these criteria in mind, Muxy created what has come to be known as our Awards Show Extension.
In this extension, a branded interface overlaid on the event stream video player is used by viewers
and streamers to vote on who they think is going to win awards. A production team uses a separate
admin interface to control the extension in real time during the event, locking voting on categories
right before winners are announced and triggering notifications about upcoming awards. A channel’s
predictions earn them points that are then used to measure the accuracy of their predictions
compared to other channels, with the top ten channels making it to a leaderboard that can be seen
by all extension users. Each viewer can vote in only one channel to deter attempts to sabotage
other channels with deliberately bad predictions. At the end of the show, the winning channel was
recognized by the show host on stream and voters in the channel received a special The Game
Awards Twitch chat emote.
RESULTS
LEADERBOARD
LEADERBOARD
MY TEAM: LIRIK
Current Team Rank: 1 | Points: 45,432
Team Voters: 14,504
Up Next:
VR
VOTE NOW
VOTE
Category: VR
RESULTSLEADERBOARD
Tiny Trax
Doom VFX
Star Trek Bridge Crew
Rick and Morty
VOTE NOW
Up Next:
VR
VOTE NOW
INDIE
Winner: Cuphead
Lirik Overall
Rime
Your Pick:
Cuphead
Channel’s Pick:
RESULTSLEADERBOARD
Slime Rancher
Up Next:
VR
VOTE NOW
RESULTS
Multiplayer
Fighting Game
Narrative
Most Anticipated
Esports Team
Art Direction
RPG
Indie
VR
GOY
PUBG
For Honor
Zelda
Mario 8
Cloud9
Cuphead
Persona 5
Cuphead
---
---
RESULTSLEADERBOARD
Up Next:
VR
By voting in Lirik’s channel,
you are joining his team for
the entire awards show.
VOTE & JOIN TEAM
Cancel
Up Next:
VR
VOTE NOW
LIRIK
1500 Points
<
RPG
14,530 votes | 73%
INDIE
15,723 votes | 54%
VR
11,159 votes
GOY
8,174 votes
RESULTSLEADERBOARD

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muxy.io
PROJECT RESULTS
To say this extension was highly successful would be a massive understatement. In addition to the
truly impressive statistics shared farther down this page, perhaps the greatest testament to this
extension’s value is the two other awards shows (so far) who have licensed customized versions of the
same software for their live streams.
#1 program* on December 7, 2017 according to Nielsen
*excluding live sports
#TheGameAwards was the #1 Twitter trend
worldwide during the broadcast
1372Twitch broadcasters co-streamed The Game Awards
Although Muxy’s The Game Awards extension alone didn’t create the remarkable success of the event
singlehandedly, there is no question that it was a significant contributor. Simply put, live events are
more successful when viewers have the opportunity to participate and Muxy software enables that to
happen.
“The thing that seems clear is that some of the interactive stuff
we were doing on Twitch and Steam really drive traffic,” [The
Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley] says...“The more we
gamify the show and make it interactive, the more people seem
to stick around and tell their friends,” he says.
- Rolling Stone, “The Game Awards Audience Triples to 11.5 Million Livestreams in 2017”
70%of Twitch viewers
engaged with The Game
Awards extension
+202%
viewership increase
compared to The Game
Awards 2016
+250%more minutes watched
by average viewer
compared to The Game
Awards 2016