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.

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, [email protected]

Grace Coryell, ESPN Communications, 213-405-4402, [email protected]

Olivia Wilson, ESPN Communications, 213-405-4145, [email protected]