The french Twitch scene broke its all time simultaneous unique live views count on this Saturday 8th, as Lucas Hauchard, known as Squeezie, partnered with the ACO and FFSA to host a F4 race with various influencers from the french Twitch / Youtube environment on the Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans.
The event saw 40.000 spectators attending physically, and a peak of more than a million live spectators online, making it the biggest french Twitch stream to this date, even beating the annual Zevent charity convention. The GP Explorer stream is also officially the 5th most viewwed broadcast on Twitch worldwide.
The grid saw a bunch of people totally new to the racing world, but also a few quite involved in the automotive scene: the duet from the Vilebrequin automotive youtube channel formed their own team, with Sylvain Levy taking the win after an incredibly intense and professional looking battle with Pierre-Olivier Valette, known as Depielo, a high profile simracing influencer who commentated on the FIA Gran Turismo championship and is no stranger to real life racing, as he participated in the Pau Grand Prix.
Viewers were able to enjoy a race with a high production value, allowing everyone to enjoy the battles and other events just as well as you would expect it from a world class racing event, with the direction not missing overtakes or incidents. The FFSA crews were also on high alert, managing to rebuild the destroyed single seater of Joyca in time for the race, after his big shunt in qualifying.
This all falls in line with the overall incredibly professional feel of the event, with proper marshalls, safety car, sponsors and racing actors backup, and even the drivers attitude as well. For instance, Sylvain from Vilebrequin, who is usually known for his humorous and chaotic persona, surprised everyone by deciding to only run 2 laps in Q1 in order to preserve his tyres for Q2. But it's his overtake on Depielo which impressed the most, showing full confidence as he lunged it on the inside of the Chappelle corner.
The success of this event is historic both motorsport and media worlds, as most motorsport series struggle to reach out to new audiences through TV or series dedicated channels. With people coming from internet medias and used to produce gaming related content hosting races of this quality and with such great returns, simracers may find a more direct route into racing real cars in the future.
The event saw 40.000 spectators attending physically, and a peak of more than a million live spectators online, making it the biggest french Twitch stream to this date, even beating the annual Zevent charity convention. The GP Explorer stream is also officially the 5th most viewwed broadcast on Twitch worldwide.
The grid saw a bunch of people totally new to the racing world, but also a few quite involved in the automotive scene: the duet from the Vilebrequin automotive youtube channel formed their own team, with Sylvain Levy taking the win after an incredibly intense and professional looking battle with Pierre-Olivier Valette, known as Depielo, a high profile simracing influencer who commentated on the FIA Gran Turismo championship and is no stranger to real life racing, as he participated in the Pau Grand Prix.
Viewers were able to enjoy a race with a high production value, allowing everyone to enjoy the battles and other events just as well as you would expect it from a world class racing event, with the direction not missing overtakes or incidents. The FFSA crews were also on high alert, managing to rebuild the destroyed single seater of Joyca in time for the race, after his big shunt in qualifying.
This all falls in line with the overall incredibly professional feel of the event, with proper marshalls, safety car, sponsors and racing actors backup, and even the drivers attitude as well. For instance, Sylvain from Vilebrequin, who is usually known for his humorous and chaotic persona, surprised everyone by deciding to only run 2 laps in Q1 in order to preserve his tyres for Q2. But it's his overtake on Depielo which impressed the most, showing full confidence as he lunged it on the inside of the Chappelle corner.
The success of this event is historic both motorsport and media worlds, as most motorsport series struggle to reach out to new audiences through TV or series dedicated channels. With people coming from internet medias and used to produce gaming related content hosting races of this quality and with such great returns, simracers may find a more direct route into racing real cars in the future.