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Overwatch League Rakes in over 10 Million Viewers in Opening Week

by | Jan 17, 2018 | Esports, Esports section, Videogames

Overwatch League Rakes in over 10 Million Viewers in Opening Week

by | Jan 17, 2018 | Esports, Esports section, Videogames

It would appear that Blizzard’s strategy of throwing copious amounts of money at the Overwatch League is paying off. In its first week, OWL attracted upwards of 10 million viewers, or roughly half as many people as watched the 2017 NBA Finals.

That’s seriously impressive considering the fact that Blizzard signed a new contract to stream OWL on Twitch only a day before the first matches took place.

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The first week of the Overwatch League started out hot, with over 350,000 concurrent viewers watching the league’s very first match between the San Fransisco Shock and Los Angeles Valiant. Things quickly got better from there as OWL’s stream reportedly peaked at 437,000 concurrent viewers later that night during the Dallas Fuel vs Seoul Dynasty match.

According to analytics site Esports Charts,  that number doesn’t even include Chinese viewers. If you factor them in, the concurrent viewership number spikes up to 1.64 million.

Blizzard certainly must be pleased with the turnout, but they must be careful in the weeks ahead. The only thing harder than getting viewers is keeping them. OWL viewership numbers were at their highest during the first night of competition. That means that plenty of people tuned into night one and never came back. The Overwatch League will need to find a consistent fanbase if it wants to become the next great esport. 

 

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Don’t forget to check out some of our other weekly pieces, The LoL Weekly Preview, Recap and Highlight, as well as something I’m Forgetting and Week in Review.

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