Blizzard is congratulating itself: With the beta of Overwatch 2, they reached 1.5 million concurrent viewers on Twitch on April 27, 2022. That’s 3 times more than Overwatch 1 ever had. But the success shouldn’t be overstated, believes MeinMMO author Schuhmann.
What is the new viewer record for Overwatch?
- The viewer record for Overwatch 1 comes from January 10, 2018. At that time, the first season of the Overwatch League started: 439,152 viewers watched Overwatch on Twitch concurrently.
- The new viewer record is 1,459,207 concurrent viewers. This was achieved yesterday, on April 27. That was Day 2 of the “Overwatch 2” beta.
Blizzard counts the concurrent viewers of Overwatch 1 and 2 together, celebrating “over 1.5 million concurrent viewers” and celebrating themselves on Twitter, while somehow passing the praise on to the players:
Twitch Drops fuel the record on Twitch: Who watches can join the beta
Why is the number so high? The number is so high because Blizzard is using a 2-year-old trick from Riot Games: Twitch Drops.
Anyone who watched Overwatch 2 for 4 hours yesterday on Twitch with certain streamers receives a “guaranteed beta access” and can play Overwatch 2 themselves.
In Valorant, this led to skyrocketing viewer counts and even discussions about introducing new rules to prevent abuse. Because it was so lucrative to show Valorant on Twitch that people just played a recording orfans even lied.
This time it seems that many are watching Overwatch just to get into the beta. It is rumored that viewers “are not really there”, but just let the stream run.
Twitch streamers show Overwatch 2, but as Overwatch 1
This is a nasty detail: There is a separate category for Overwatch 2 on “Twitch”, but hardly anyone is streaming there:
- Overwatch 2 had an average of 15,280 viewers over the last 3 days and 1.1 million watched hours
- Overwatch 1 had an average of 190,624 viewers over the last 3 days and 13.7 million watched hours
Almost all streamers are therefore still showing Overwatch 2 under the old category
