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Overwatch debuts enormous eSports league

Fabio Schlösser Vila
January 23, 2018

The computer game Overwatch has sold over 35 million copies and the developer has now launched the biggest eSports project ever, the Overwatch League. Can it meet the expectations of both investors and fans?

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Overwatch League
Image: Blizzard/Overwatch League

In 2016, Overwatch took the world by storm. Upon its official release, millions of players jumped onto the bandwagon and made it one of the highest-selling games of the year.

The developer, Blizzard, aimed to create a competitive title from the very start and even before the official release in May, there was an eSports community surrounding the game. Shortly after that, tournaments all around the world sprung up and more than $1 million in prize money had been won by the end of 2016.

While other games such as Counter-Strike or Dota 2 have slowly and steadily grown their fan bases over almost two decades, Blizzard is pouring money into the scene in an effort to quickly make it an eSports classic.

However, the numbers are not that convincing. Every month, statistics website newzoo.com ranks all eSports titles by their viewership figures on the streaming platform Twitch and for the majority of 2017, Overwatch struggled to stay among the top five, falling behind games that receive much less developer support.

Blizzard aims to compete with the biggest eSports titles in terms of investment and expects the viewership to follow up, but will it? This question has become ever more important in light of their newest project, the most ambitious eSports event to date.

The creation of a super-league

The Overwatch League (OWL), which was established in late 2016, is a franchised league - meaning that teams had to buy into it to receive a starting slot, which they will maintain indefinitely. It guarantees a safe spot in the tournament, an important feature for investors who usually shy away from long-term investments because of relegation systems. However, the entrance fees were unexpectedly high. It was reported that the teams had to pay between $10 and $20 million (€8.2 million - €16.3 million), which had never been the case in eSports before. More than $200 million has been sunk into the league, with traditional sports owners like Jeff Wilpon of Major League Baseball's New York Mets creating their own teams to compete.

Overwatch League
Image: gigazine.net

Despite the fact that the Overwatch League was established more than a year ago, it only began play this past January 10, however it was received positively by the eSports community.

"Technically speaking, Overwatch League is superb and produces an an absolutely clean broadcast. They have even been able to create a good viewing experience, which many thought impossible considering how fast-paced and complex the game is," German eSports analyst Matthias "cLaun" Holländer said.

The first day of play attracted more than 1.2 Million peak concurrent viewers, almost 400,000 of whom tuned in for the English broadcast. However, the viewing figures sharply declined after the first couple of days and by its fourth day, the English broadcast only attracted 200,000 peak viewers. This suggests that a lot of people tuned in just to witness the first moments of a new league and not out of actual interest in the game, which makes it difficult to predict how the viewership will develop in the next few months.

How does this compare to other games? Counter-Strike's "ELEAGUE Major: Boston" is currently underway. For just the qualifying stage - in which the best teams didn't event take part - the event attracted an average of 300,000 viewers for the English broadcast, a number that is bound to rise as soon as the top teams get involved.

In terms of return on investment, the costs associated with operating Counter-Strike Majors are far lower than those associated with the OWL, so Blizzard and its investors are bound not to be satisfied with the current viewership of this new super-league. However, let's not forget that the league is still in its infancy. So what can be done in order to raise it up to be on a par with the likes of Counter-Strike or League of Legends?

Lee Sang-hyeok
Lee Sang-hyeok is the world's highest paid eSports player Image: cc-by/artubr

Growing a community

"In order to maintain and increase the overall interest and viewership of Overwatch League, the league needs to quickly make it possible for fans to identify with its players and teams," Holländer said.

Having stars like South Korea's Lee Sang-hyeok or "Faker" playing League Of Legends is a major force in promoting that game, but having been released less than two years ago, it's not surprising that Overwatch doesn't yet have such well-known figures. As Holländer pointed out, people "get interested in basketball because of stars like Lebron James or Steph Curry, not because of a nice-looking studio." 

It's pretty clear that Blizzard will have to do a lot more if it intends to take the Overwatch League to the top of the eSports food chain. However, while the game lacks history and doesn't yet have the sort of stars capable of giving a major boost to the brand, it does have a massive player base and Blizzard has proved that it is not averse to spending big on promotion. So the future for the biggest eSports project that has ever been launched may actually have a promising future.