- Overwatch 2’s closed Beta was released last week and broke its own viewership record
- However, it lost 99% of its Twitch viewers in just a few days
- There are still hopes that the game will again reach its previous popularity
Overwatch 2’s Beta release broke the franchise’s own Twitch viewership numbers, but a week after its release, it seems it has lost steam.
OW2 Lost Almost All Its Viewers
Players have been wanting a second game from the Overwatch franchise for quite some time, so they were delighted when Blizzard finally announced closed Beta tests for Overwatch 2 early last month. The game is supposed to be a grand overhaul of both multiplayer and singleplayer content.
Blizzard finally released the closed Beta last week, garnering the attention of millions of viewers, and seemingly pouring new life into the franchise that has suffered from a severe content drought during the last two years. Overwatch 2 dominated Twitch charts with a whopping 1.4 million concurrent viewers, a number boosted more or less by every big name streamer on the platform playing the game.
However, now that a week has passed, it seems that the game’s popularity is once again leaning, or rather plummeting. Right now, Overwatch 2’s Twitch audience has dropped from 1.4 million to just around 15 000, meaning the game lost 99% of its viewers.
What Does This Mean for Overwatch’s Future?
One might say the gamer’s attention span is short, while another will say this is just how humans are. When they’re not exposed to something new, they will lose interest. Regardless of the cause, the fact remains that Overwatch 2 has very quickly lost almost all of its audience, despite shattering its own viewership record last week.
This poses some interesting questions for the game’s future. As most of the big streamers have gone back to their usual Fortnite, CSGO, VALORANT, Apex Legends, etc., will there be anyone to play Overwatch 2?
Well, for fans of the franchise there is still hope. One can argue that the game’s viewership dropped because the game is still in its closed Beta phase, although the 99% drop is still extraordinarily large. But the number of viewers will likely go up a lot again after Blizzard releases the whole game and the sold-separately single-player content for Overwatch 2, although no official date for that has yet been announced.
Another hope for Overwatch 2 is the fact that viewership should again increase with the coming of competitive events during the year. If Blizzard plays its marketing cards right, the game should receive a much-needed boost in popularity.
Additionally, now that Blizzard has more free time and manpower, it might start again dropping regular updates to the original Overwatch, a thing it had virtually paused for two years.
