Blizzard celebration tweet (lol): https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/1519477448152342529
via Forbes
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Overwatch 2’s Beta Lost 99% of Its Viewers in Just the First Week on Twitch
- Thread starter Deleted member11191
- Start date
- Activision/Blizzard Video/Streaming
Blizzard celebration tweet (lol): https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/1519477448152342529
via Forbes
Meh, they made a stink about it being a surge in viewership regardless of it being when keys were dropping. They invited this kind of headline.
Also - there's nothing to actually watch, tbh.
Overwatch just isn't much of a Twitch game anyway, regardless whether it's OW1 or OW2
One OW pro streamer summed it up nicely in one stream last week: OW just does not have any "clutch moments" or "clutch plays" - watching it feels the same at just about any time because of the constant revives etc.
Overwatch just isn't much of a Twitch game anyway, regardless whether it's OW1 or OW2
One OW pro streamer summed it up nicely in one stream last week: OW just does not have any "clutch moments" or "clutch plays" - watching it feels the same at just about any time because of the constant revives etc.
OP
OP
The tweet made it sound like people wanted to watch Overwatch for it being Overwatch. It was for the keys, so it was a sly tactic.
As another user said, this article is the natural response when they want to prop up high numbers in general.
Next time they set any records in viewership or player numbers they should just post
"...."
I mean... yeah, it did? It was a factual statement about one day that's still true lol.
I get that higher Twitch viewership would look better right now, but the fact that it surged so much for the beta still shows that there's a lot of interest in the game (even if it's more for playing than watching) so I don't really get what the "gotcha" is here lol. It's not like they were bot views, they were real people who want the opportunity to play the game.
I mean, context matters. While a sharp drop-off should come as no surprise to even Blizzard itself, 1.5m tuning in for beta access isn't quite the same thing as 1.5m doing so for, say, a post-release grand final match. Only one of those scenarios shows sustained, meaningful interest. So, while there's clearly a lot of interest in the game, 1.5m folks hoping to get pre-release access to the game for free is, just, well, exactly that -- for now.
I distinctly remember Evolve fans declaring "victory" when it went F2P and its player numbers shot up, only for those figures to nosedive the following month. I don't mean to suggest Overwatch 2 is doomed to that fate (indeed, as I alluded to above, you'd be foolish to bet against the game); rather, I'm just reiterating the point that there's more to the presumption of a game's success than surface-level numbers that are context-heavy to the point of existing in a vacuum.
Edit: To be superly-duperly clear, I don't mean to imply Blizzard's tweet is silly. Much the opposite, in fact: Blizzard would be silly not to make a big deal of the numbers.
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Its a two way thing. Yeh the drop off is so large because people wanted beta access, but at the same time look how many people wanted beta access.
Pretty sure they did this to gauge interest in the game-- and it's safe to say a lot of people were interested.
Just one week in and they added open queue to the beta and role queue times went down quite a bit as a result. Matchmaking still seems glitchy but it is a quickplay only closed beta so I think that's part of the problem.
I think there are more victories than Ls here but that doesn't make the headlines. Hopefully, they add PvE in future betas :P
Just one week in and they added open queue to the beta and role queue times went down quite a bit as a result. Matchmaking still seems glitchy but it is a quickplay only closed beta so I think that's part of the problem.
I think there are more victories than Ls here but that doesn't make the headlines. Hopefully, they add PvE in future betas :P
Meh. It's more about people immediatly losing interest in OW2 when they realized it wasn't much more than a patch for the original game.
People were excited for an actual sequel.
I don't understand how anyone would have expected anything else. Those numbers were huge partly because people wanted beta access and partly because people wanted to see the game for the first time. People got beta access and ran off to play the beta, people got their first look and went home.
I guess I don't really understand how the numbers plummeting is a bad thing unless it hasn't translated to big beta numbers at the same time.
I guess I don't really understand how the numbers plummeting is a bad thing unless it hasn't translated to big beta numbers at the same time.
It's been cool to hate on OW for like 2-3 years now.
The series has definitely been living below its potential for a while now unfortunately but those Twitch numbers were never going to be sustainable for a beta.
Pokemon Unite has terrible Twitch numbers but that game is fucking huge.
People are so out of touch on this forum that they don't realize that those big ass numbers that are being pulled on twitch are either usually events, game releases, or esports tournaments and then acting smug about it when the numbers drop. NO SHIT IT'S BECAUSE PEOPLE WANTED A SHOT AT THE BETA BRUH.
Yeah, even people here were laughing at those who claimed that OW lost a lot of its popularity due to that record
"news" about Twitch viewer numbers are always stupid
'on this forum' yet tons of people are saying no shit it's because of the beta drops lol.
This is a complete non-story.
And it kind of feels like the point of the thread is to laugh at the game with that tweet being in the OP, despite the fact that this really isn't an issue at all.
And it kind of feels like the point of the thread is to laugh at the game with that tweet being in the OP, despite the fact that this really isn't an issue at all.
I really wish this had something to do with the toxic ppl running this company and consumers finally doing something about it and letting the game flop but it's all about beta access.
I mean yeah, it did. The marketing event was a massive success, expect to see more like it on monday.
And some Posters are so out of touch with TWITCH that they don't see the obvious uniqueness of a game dropping 99% instead the usual 20 to 80%. Sure, Valorant can make a headline about doing 1 million viewers with an event, but the next week they still have 500.000 viewers.
Yea, they should probably just cancel the game and fire all the devs, its a failure.
People really hate this game and want to try to make a dig whenever they can, huh.
Viewership is double what it was before the beta release with barely any new content and streamers playing QP.
People really hate this game and want to try to make a dig whenever they can, huh.
Viewership is double what it was before the beta release with barely any new content and streamers playing QP.
Not really, it's roughly the same as it was before the OW2 beta.
Well yeah, it'll go back up when they do wave 2 of drops and then back down. That's kinda how it goes with these things. Kind of a nothing thread really.
Also given that a lot of bigger games than Overwatch don't have the regular viewer numbers that Overwatch does, Twitch isn't the most accurate metric of a game's success.
I get that some ERA posters are so desperate to have something to point and laugh at and want to see OW fail and all, but this is pretty normal. Game's still popular, for better or worse.
Also given that a lot of bigger games than Overwatch don't have the regular viewer numbers that Overwatch does, Twitch isn't the most accurate metric of a game's success.
I get that some ERA posters are so desperate to have something to point and laugh at and want to see OW fail and all, but this is pretty normal. Game's still popular, for better or worse.
Not surprising given what others have said about beta keys and all of that. I don't think its a non-story though, OW has had trouble competing with the biggest games on twitch for years and its only gotten worse. If OW2 continues that trend then I question the longevity of the franchise, and I certainly question its esports scene. OWL needs eyeballs.
If Blizzard doesn't Blizzard, OW PvE has the potential to be massive. Twitch numbers be damned.
I know your 500k viewers is probably just a random number to prove a point but if we look at twitch tracker, for valorant specifically, you'll notice that the game itself averages about 139k viewers. This is after the latest VCT finale and is what I would consider its normal viewer numbers. Its peak viewership numbers amount to 1.7 million which, I think you can guess where this is going, was on April 7th in 2020 which is the day the beta officially started (twitch drops and all).
The peaks you can see in this graph are, IIRC, the months when they had VCT or other esports-related broadcasts. If you look at December 2021 which was when the last VCT grand championship was held and January 2022 you'll notice a drop in viewership numbers of about 70% and this is for a game that has consistently been relevant ever since its release. Overwatch and for that matter Overwatch 2, which is a game that hasn't been relevant for quite a few years now with a beta that is very limited in content and appeals mostly only to people who have played the original game before dropping down to these numbers makes perfect sense in this scenario imo.
This is what I don't understand about people constantly harping on about the low viewership. What do people expect? It's a beta. It's far from complete and is going to change significantly by the time the next beta comes out and even more by the time the full game comes out, people understand that, what reason is there really to keep watching it once you've seen the current changes? Of course major streamers are going to go back to their usual stuff instead of spending a ton of time on an unfinished game. When Overwatch 2 actually launches for real, THEN it'll have a legitimate opportunity to rebuild the community and provide a reason for people to stream it full time and for audiences to stick around. And maybe it really will flop and do terrible numbers when that happens. But low numbers now feels meaningless to me.
Weren't people watching because of beta keys? Of course the viewership would drop like crazy after everyone got their keys. It is a tactic to artificially inflate your numbers.
Twitch metrics are such a weird way to measure long term success. News flash, a majority of people would rather play the game rather than watch someone else unless.