US GOP debate has lowest viewership yet... possibly because of Fallout 4?

Yesterday's GOP presidential debate had the lowest ratings

The Republican party had their presidential debate yesterday, and it had some of the lowest ratings in this election campaign so far. According to New York Daily News the debate only pulled in 13.5 million views - this compared to 25 million and 23 million for the first two GOP debates. That's almost half of the viewership! But who is to blame?

As we all know, yesterday was a pretty hot day for video game releases. Coming to our TV screens and PC monitors yesterday were big name titles like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void, and the crowd favorite Fallout 4 all simultaneously released on November 10th.

While it may seem unlikely that 10 million gamers decided not to watch the GOP debate, we have to remember that video game players - particularly the age of majority ones - are pretty active in politics. In fact, we're typically the first ones to cry out injustices when they're carried out.

So maybe - just maybe - the American political debate that was held on the same day Fallout 4 was released might have had a little bit of sway in that number. I mean, the game's pretty darn great despite its glitches, and it's not that hard to speculate that more than a few gamers have been glued to their screens since release. I know I have.

Of course, this isn't the only possible explanation; maybe Americans are just running out of steam already in this election cycle.

What do you guys think? Have you been following the presidential campaigns? Did Fallout 4, Legacy of the Void, or Tomb Raider stop you from watching this debate? Do you have a completely different theory for why there were less viewers? Leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!

Featured Columnist

Author, GameSkinny columnist, and part-time childhood destroyer. David W. Fisher (otherwise known as RR-sama) is a no B.S. reviewer and journalist who will ensure that you get as close to the facts as humanly possible!

Published Nov. 11th 2015
  • Liam_3338
    A lot of it has to do with it being on Fox Business News which isn't available in all markets yet. That being said though, I do personally know several political independents that actually opted to not watch the debates in specific because of Fallout 4 even though they had watched all of the debates prior.
  • Sintjago
    Lol. Fallout 4 is great, but correlation is not causation. I doubt there was significant overlap in this instance. More like viewer fatigue. Anyway, it was fun reading, back to Fallout 4.
  • Durinn McFurren
    Contributor
    I'd posit that perhaps it is because comparatively few people would vote for any of the people involved in that debate.
  • David Fisher
    Featured Columnist
    Probably. But it would be kinda funny if video game releases were the reason, no? :P
  • Rothalack
    Master O' Bugs
    Donald Trump was in the first two and then not this one last night, right? I would pin that as much more an influence.

    Edit: Now I'm confused, what debate did I see? Were there multiple different debates last night?
  • GameSkinny Staff
    Contributor
    There are have been two debates each time for the GOP, the main stage and undercard :)

    Trump is still in the mainstage 'bracket'.
  • Rothalack
    Master O' Bugs
    I see, no wonder the one I saw seemed like a bunch of irrelevant people.

Cached - article_comments_article_30281
Related