Record of audience on Twitch in France broken by GP Explorer 2: the second edition of the race of the stars on the Internet on Saturday thrilled both the sponsors and “generation Z”, who flocked en masse to the Le Mans circuit and in front of the screens.
Broadcast live on the streaming platform, the race which saw around twenty content creators compete in Formula 4 cars, including the YouTuber Squeezie and the rapper SCH as a guest, recorded a record audience in France with a peak of over 1.3 million people, compared to one million in the first edition.
In a sign of the enthusiasm for GP Explorer 2, the 60,000 tickets put on sale were sold in less than an hour last May, even beating the influx of 40,000 spectators gathered at the Sarthe circuit in October 2022.
Even before the start of the race won by YouTuber Depielo, the culmination of an event that lasted more than ten hours, everything was scripted as a great sporting event, with production means worthy of a professional first prize.
Free practice sessions, visits to the stands, souvenir shops, entertainment of all kinds offered by the numerous brand sponsors of the event, teams with the colors of a major sponsor, and even selfies with the drivers for the luckiest ones present in the mixed audience made up of the vast majority majority of young people under 30.
Among the headliners: French web celebrities with millions of subscribers on social networks, starting with Squeezie, instigator of this race to more than 18 million subscribers on YouTube, or Gotaga, Mister V, Seb, Billy or Maghla, one of the most streamer following in France with 800,000 subscribers on the Twitch broadcasting platform.
“Maghla, I follow her on Twitch, I support her completely, I love what she does. Furthermore, she only had her license this year, she is the rookie of the race,” Clément Huyghe, 28, an insurance expert in Bordeaux, who paid 60 euros on the Internet to have your favorite streamer shirt on your back, told AFP .
Also present were the Marseille rappers SCH and Soso Maness, known for having participated in the song “Bande Organisée”.
– “reaching young consumers” –
“Many friends wanted to come, but only four of us had room. We are one of the lucky ones! », exulted Esseye Brossas, 20 years old, a psychology student in Nantes, who was unable to participate in the first edition.
Popularity with the strategic objective of “generation Z” which pushed brands already present last year to strengthen their presence, such as Deezer or TCL, and others to invest, such as Samsung or Crunchyroll, while competitions were held between content creators, like GP Explorer, attract an audience close to that of the large traditional competitions.
This allows us to “reach young consumers where they are”, that is, in “these events”, explains Jérôme Bloch, marketing director of Samsung France for the mobile business, to AFP, eager to associate his brand “with innovation”.
“We have seen a before and after” in terms of visibility after the first Explorer GP, “with an increase between 10 and 15% of our +followers+ on Instagram”, adds Virginie Guimaraes, marketing manager for France of the Chinese brand TCL, specialized in electronic equipment.
Higher media profitability and lower costs than a 30-second TV commercial during halftime of a major sporting competition. And which attracts not only technology, streaming and video game brands, such as Subway or Del Arte (catering).
«When a creator (of the GP Explorer) also produces content on his personal accounts, the brand will benefit from 360-degree communication, which he would not necessarily have had access to if he had sponsored a more traditional event» at a lower, higher, Antonin Assié, co-founder of Odace, an agency specializing in digital communication, underlines this again to AFP.
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