The beta of Overwatch 2 will dominate viewer numbers on Twitch starting today, Wednesday, April 27, says MeinMMO author Schuhmann. Blizzard has adopted a trick that Riot Games established with the shooter “Valorant” in 2020. If you want to join the beta of Overwatch 2, you need to watch Twitch. However, even without drops, Overwatch was already a hit on Twitch yesterday.
How strong was Overwatch 2 already on Twitch? Very strong:
- The beta of Overwatch 2 began on Tuesday, April 26, at 7:00 PM German time.
- The viewer numbers for Overwatch 2 rose from “sleepy” 9,700 viewers to a peak of 454,735 viewers.
- Just a few hours into the beta were enough to make Overwatch 2 one of the 10 biggest games on Twitch in the last 3 days among the “Trending Games”.
Overwatch breaks 4-year-old viewer record on Twitch
This makes it so special: As reported by Dotesports, Overwatch 2 set its viewer record on Twitch yesterday (via dotesports):
- 2 hours after the beta launch, 469,000 viewers were watching – Overwatch had never seen so many viewers.
- The previous record was 439,152 – set on January 10, 2018, when the first season of the Overwatch League began.
“Bad Boy” xQc has the most viewers with Overwatch
Who were the big winners? The biggest winner was “xQc” who was once an Overwatch pro before he got banned from the league for misconduct. He played Overwatch 2 for 5 hours and had an average of 140,000 viewers. Record.
Alongside him, the other former pro Seagull impressed. There was a glorious scene on Twitch: The self-proclaimed “Hanzo God” met one of the “world’s best Widowmaker” players.
Why will Overwatch 2 dominate Twitch starting today? Starting today, April 27, viewers can guarantee a access to the beta of Overwatch 2 by watching a Twitch streamer for at least 4 hours.
This is a tactic that Riot Games established in 2020 with the shooter “Valorant”. Back then, one only gained access to the beta of Valorant by watching a streamer with activated Twitch drops.
This caused an immense hype in 2020: Streamers ran their streams all night to “farm viewers” and the viewers watched endlessly. There were even complaints against some tactics that were used by streamers at the time: The rogue DrDisrespect lied blatantly, claiming he had drops available when that wasn’t the case.
Moreover, the hardcore shooter “Escape from Tarkov” uses Twitch drops to regularly rise to the top of Twitch.
After Overwatch already performed strongly on Twitch yesterday – still without drops – it is safe to assume that Overwatch will become even bigger today when the drops become active.
Overwatch reaches 1.4 million viewers
Update April 28, 8:50 AM: Blizzard’s plan worked, as expected. On April 27, Overwatch peaked at 1.4 million viewers on Twitch. That’s 3 times higher than the record from April 26.
The biggest winner was once again xQc, who peaked at 310,800 viewers.
More about the beta of Overwatch 2:
Overwatch 2 has 3 times more viewers on Twitch than part 1 ever had – Blizzard’s plan is working
