X Games has decades of brand equity built through broadcast television. The event is iconic. But the audience watching live on Twitch has fundamentally different expectations than a TV viewer. They expect interaction, participation, personality, and the feeling that they’re part of something — not watching from outside it.
The challenge: bring streaming culture to X Games without turning it into something it’s not. The brand’s energy, legacy, and competitive integrity had to stay intact. The access model had to change.
We designed a Twitch-native layer on top of the X Games broadcast — not a replacement, but an addition. Twitch streamers joined as co-commentators alongside the main hosts, with their own dedicated set looks and broadcast positions on-site. Chat comments were pulled live onto the stream. Giveaways and interactive moments were built into the broadcast rhythm so the Twitch audience felt like participants, not spectators.
The audience layer became something new. New looks, new hosts, new ways in — all designed to expand who gets to feel like they’re in the room without changing what X Games already was.
X Games Ventura 2023 was the first iteration — proof of concept for every streaming integration idea. Chat overlays, streamer co-hosts, interactive giveaways, audience participation mechanics. We tested what worked, what landed flat, and where the production rhythm needed adjustment.
Ventura 2024 was the second pass — tighter, smarter, with the streamer integration redesigned around what we’d learned. By X Games Aspen 2024, the streaming layer operated as a seamless part of the broadcast rather than an experiment running alongside it.
I drove the streaming strategy — what interactive elements to include, how to surface chat on-stream, how to structure streamer integration so it enhanced the broadcast rather than competing with it.
The Telly Award for Craft Use of Live Stream validated the approach: this wasn’t a gimmick layered onto a traditional broadcast. It was a considered production design that respected what X Games already was while opening a new access point for a digital-native audience.
The iterative model — test in Ventura, refine for Aspen — demonstrated how to evolve a legacy format responsibly. Not a rebrand. Not a pivot. An expansion of who gets to feel like they’re in the room.
Credits: Director Frank Samson, Production Boombox Group