In the first action sports event to take place in North America since the pandemic put large events on hold, X Games Aspen 2021 content across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC experienced double-digit viewership increases on television and triple-digit growth on @XGames social and digital media platforms.
(Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
Driven by the rise of young talent, with six of the 14 gold medals being awarded to teenagers, X Games Aspen 2021 saw growth in video views on both @XGames Instagram and YouTube, as both accounts continued to see a large share – more than 65% – of followers and subscribers between the ages of 13-34.
New to this year’s social media content offerings, X Games teamed up with TikTok to stream X Games Aspen 2021 live within the app. Across the three days of the event, TikTok live streamed five of X Games Aspen’s non-linear broadcasts, which resulted in 2.1 million live views. In addition, TikTok placed the #XGamesMode banner on the discover page which resulted in growth of 407 million views, and a total currently surpassing one billion views.
X Games Aspen 2021 television, social and digital media successes include:
Television
- X Games Aspen 2021 viewership across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC was up +15% YOY for all telecasts.
- Increases in this year’s X Games Aspen were driven by people watching more minutes, up +16% YOY.
Social & Digital
- X Games Aspen 2021 delivered more than 105 million video views across its TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat (+483% YOY)
- Total TikTok video views: 63.3M (+4,421% YOY)
- Total TikTok followers: 403,507 (+1,097% YOY)
- Total Instagram video views: 23.8M (+166% YOY)
- Total Instagram impressions: 107.1M (+194% YOY)
- Instagram stories garnered another six million impressions, with 46K average story views (+31% YOY)
- Total Instagram followers: 2.9M (+113% YOY for event week)
- YouTube: 4.1M video views (+11% YOY)
- YouTube: 42.1M minutes watched (+7% YOY)
- Twitter: 11.4M impressions (+75% YOY)
- Facebook: 578K total engagements (+319% YOY)
- XGames.com also saw triple-digit growth the week of the event, with a +692% YOY increase in average daily unique visitors, a +736% YOY increase in page views and a +835% YOY increase in total minutes spent on the website.
Globally, X Games Aspen was syndicated in 192 countries and territories and to more than 500 million homes.
Additional information on all X Games Aspen is available at www.xgames.com for fans or on www.espnmediazone.com for media only. For photos please visit www.espnimages.com
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Media Contact:
Danny Chi, ESPN Communications, 213-405-4400, danny.c.chi@espn.com
Grace Coryell, ESPN Communications, 213-405-4402, grace.s.coryell@espn.com
Olivia Wilson, ESPN Communications, 213-405-4145, olivia.wilson@espn.com
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