Within 24 hours of this year’s Academy Awards, total views on Variety social video covering the show hit 138 million, becoming the biggest day of Oscars social traffic in publication history.
The previous record was held by coverage of the 2023 Oscars, which generated over 122 million views in just one day.
Views were tallied across Instagram, X/Twitter, TikTok and Facebook, with video on Instagram (23 million) and TikTok (61.3 million) bringing in the lion’s share of the traffic. Standout moments from the red carpet, hosted by Variety’s Marc Malkin, include “Past Lives” star Teo Yoo’s tribute to his deceased pet tortoise and “American Fiction” star Erika Alexander’s heartfelt message to her mother. Fashion clips featuring “Barbie” star Margot Robbie and “Oppenheimer” power couple Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas also played well to Variety’s combined social media audience of over 12 million followers.
Coverage was spearheaded by social media editor Rachel Seo, with significant support from associate web editors Ethan Shanfeld and Michaela Zee, digital news director Zack Sharf, deputy web editor Meredith Woerner and digital design director Dan Doperalski. Variety’s head of video Nicholas Stango, director of video production Ethan Bellows and producer-editors Mark Hayes, Gaia Robinson and Mitch Saavedra facilitated on-the-ground logistics and real-time clipping, ensuring speedy content delivery and publishing.
“Rachel, Nick, Marc, the web team and the video team have outdone themselves this year covering the Oscars,” says William Earl, editor of Variety.com. “It’s a testament to Variety’s continued growth that we were able to bring such high-quality content so quickly to so many readers.”
This success wraps up another whirlwind of an awards season, with Variety cover stars Nolan and Thomas, Kris Bowers (“The Last Repair Shop”) and Billie Eilish (“Barbie”) all winning Oscars. “Actors on Actors” participants Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”), Robert Downey Jr. (“Oppenheimer”) and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”), in addition to Awards Circuit Podcast guest Cord Jefferson (“American Fiction”), also took home gold statuettes.