OWL 2019: The problems continue

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We are actively following the results of the new competitive season of the Overwatch League. The latest article on this topic was a comparison of the second stage of the competition for the respective seasons. Now comes the turn of the third stage of this discipline's main league.

Today our talk will include the Chinese audience, thanks to the analysis of the Chinese platforms – but these services are still not to be trusted. We can tell you ahead that even the success of the Shanghai Dragons did not help this audience to gain viewers.

Overall, without taking the Chinese viewers into account, we can observe a rather small decrease of interest. At this time, the decrease consists of 2 thousand peak viewers and 14 thousand average viewers. Last time, the broadcast has shown a decrease only in terms of the average viewers – but the third stage has entered the “red zone” with its peak viewers mark as well.

In case we add China to the statistics, the observed state of affairs grows even darker. As this may be difficult to explain in mere numbers, we will resort to using the percentages. Since 2018, the tournament has lost 29% of its average viewers. The peak viewers figure for the third stage has lost even more over the year – losing a total of 40%.

But the event has also displayed a positive trend. Compared to Inaugural Season, the French broadcast has gained 1411 peak viewers and 1720 average viewers. This is extremely good news considering the overall problematic background of the third stage.

We should also tell you about the most popular teams of the event. We will make the comparison based on the average viewers of the matches. First, we will describe the results shown by all the fans, including those that spectated through the Chinese platforms.

Quite expectedly, the guys from Shanghai Dragons are at the top. Aside of becoming China's chosen representative, the team has finally managed to stop all the jokes thrown in its direction by achieving a resounding victory in the third stage. The second spot was taken by the representatives of Seoul - Seoul Dynasty.

Now we will exclude the viewers from China, changing the situation. In this case, the top of the ranking is occupied by a USA team – New York Excelsior. However, the second spot again goes to Seoul Dynasty. It seems that Korean gamers are loved both in China and in the rest of the world.

In conclusion, it can be said that today the Overwatch League displays the trends which are far from being pleasant. The championship continues to lose viewers, which is especially noticeable when compared to the last year's performance. We hope that the fourth stage will change the situation and finally bring the league back into the “green zone.”