Balloon Fiesta Live! 2026 — YouTube & Facebook
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Facebook removes live videos after 30 days. Its 2025 numbers come from snapshots taken before they were deleted, so they're the same at every point in time, and Facebook watch time, live peaks and engagement weren't captured and show as —.
The shows also aired on Balloon Fiesta TV (low-power channel 28, over the air) and Comcast Cable channel 27 (Community Access). Viewer numbers aren't available for those broadcasts, so they aren't included in these totals.
YouTube + Facebook
Totals across both platforms. Live audience compares the 14 sessions streamed on both: the Friday bonus show and the recorded Awards Ceremony were on YouTube only. Facebook counts a view as soon as a video starts playing, so watch time is the better measure of attention.
Totals across both platforms. Facebook counts a view as soon as a video starts playing. Watch time, live audience and engagement need Facebook figures that weren't captured in 2025, so those show as —; the YouTube section below has them.
YouTube
Reach
How many times YouTube showed the thumbnails, how often that became a view, and roughly how many different people watched each show. Unique viewers are YouTube's rounded estimates, summed across shows (someone who watched several shows counts once per show); Sunday Oct 11 isn't processed by YouTube yet.
How many times YouTube showed the thumbnails and how often that became a view, at the point in time chosen above. Unique viewers are lifetime, from records kept in December 2025, so they appear under To date only.
YouTube year over year, same point in time
The same 14 live shows plus the Awards Ceremony each year (2026's Friday bonus show is left out so the sets match). End of Fiesta is 24 hours after the last show; +1 week and +1 month count from there. 2026 milestones fill in as they arrive; until YouTube processes Oct 12, the 2026 End of Fiesta row is preliminary.
| Point in time | 2025 views | 2026 views | Change | 2025 watch hrs | 2026 watch hrs | Change |
|---|
Live viewers by show
Peak and average concurrent viewers while each stream was live. Mornings (AM) consistently draw about twice the evening audience.
All shows
Views and watch time are at the point in time chosen above (YouTube analytics lags about a day). Click a column to sort. The recorded Awards Ceremony was posted Saturday afternoon and is a niche show, so its smaller numbers are expected. ▲ marks an "average % viewed" figure YouTube reports higher than average view duration ÷ length would give — likely a replay-trim or processing quirk on YouTube's side.
Views and watch time are at the point in time chosen above; To date includes a full year of replays. Thursday PM Oct 9 ran only 29 minutes. The Farewell row combines the live stream with the recorded replacement upload posted the same day after a technical error. Click a column to sort. ▲ marks an "average % viewed" figure YouTube reports higher than average view duration ÷ length would give.
14 live shows on the Balloon Fiesta Page (the Friday bonus show was pulled and the Awards Ceremony wasn't uploaded). From Meta Business Suite, through Oct 12, 2026; that pull serves as both End of Fiesta and To date until the next refresh. Facebook counts a "view" whenever the video starts playing, even for a moment in the feed, so its views run much higher than YouTube's; watch time is the fairer comparison.
14 live shows on the Balloon Fiesta Page, from snapshots taken before Facebook deleted the videos (30 days after airing). The Awards Ceremony wasn't posted to Facebook. Views and reach are the final recorded figures; 3-second views are from the live broadcasts. Watch time, live peaks and engagement weren't captured.
YouTube vs Facebook — same 14 shows
Excludes the Friday bonus show and the Awards Ceremony, which weren't on Facebook.
The 14 live shows on both platforms. Facebook watch time, live peaks and engagement weren't captured for 2025, so those show as —.
| Platform | Avg peak live | Views | Watch hrs | Avg watch / view | Likes & reactions | Comments |
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Watch time by show
Facebook — all 14 shows
Peak live viewers are read from each stream's Live Producer chart (Facebook doesn't publish a number), so they're approximate, within about 5%, rounded to the nearest 10. Viewers for Oct 7 AM and Oct 8 AM show as 0 in Facebook's data, so they're left blank here.
Final figures recorded before the videos were deleted. Average play time was recorded for the first six shows only.
Source: YouTube Studio, Meta Business Suite and Facebook Live Producer. Data last updated October 12, 2026. Facebook peak live viewers are approximate.
Sources: YouTube Studio, collected October 12, 2026 (End of Fiesta, +1 week and +1 month rebuilt from YouTube's daily figures; To date is lifetime through Oct 11, 2026); YouTube unique viewers and all Facebook figures from records kept before Facebook deleted the 2025 videos. Live audience and chat figures are from the original broadcasts.