Has Overwatch 2 release affected viewership of OWL 2022 Countdown Cup?

Countdown Cup matches ended on October 22, determining the final participants in the Overwatch League 2022 playoffs. The Esports Charts team sums up the stage and tells you about the number of viewers who followed the event just before the official release of Overwatch 2.

Tournament Results

Countdown Cup matches took place from October 15 to 22 online. The tournament featured teams from the Western and Eastern divisions that did not make it directly to the Overwatch League 2022 playoffs. These teams got a chance to win quota places in Countdown Cup. Both divisions had separate brackets. The West division saw the two quota places being awarded to Florida Mayhem and Toronto Defiant. In the East division, the teams competed for a single quota place, which went to Hangzhou Spark.

Countdown Cup was the last elimination stage before the final game of the season. We should remind you that combined playoffs with the best teams from both divisions will be held from October 30 to November 4 in the USA, at the Anaheim Convention Center. The teams will compete for a $2.5 million prize pool.

Viewership Statistics

As we wrote before, Overwatch League popularity seems to be decreasing year by year, and Summer Showdown had the lowest viewership totals for the last two years. Countdown Cup improved the key metrics only slightly, but it failed to change the trend globally. Even the Overwatch 2 world release didn't help much.

Overwatch League 2022 Countdown Cup matches accumulated over 3.8 million Hours Watched in 119.5 hours of Airtime. The broadcasts had an Average Viewers number of 32.4K people and a Peak Viewers number of 73.8K people. The PV number was reached at the Washington Justice vs. Boston Uprising match. The latter became the most popular team of the tournament by HW — 664K.

Disclaimer: We did not take into account statistics from Chinese broadcasts due to our concerns about the reliability of data they provide.

English became the most popular broadcast language (88%). The Korean broadcast accounted for about 8%, and the French contributed for just under 4% All games were broadcasted on YouTube, as the platform has exclusive rights for streaming all Overwatch League matches.

The main Countdown Cup channel is the official Overwatch League channel — it got the most HW (3.4 million) and had the highest PV result (68.7K). We should remind you that OWL didn't have any community casters at this tournament.

Comparison with Previous Tournaments

This year's Countdown Cup accumulated the lowest HW number compared with other mid-season tournaments. On the other hand, it lasted only 120 hours, while the duration of other events exceeded 146 hours.

Countdown Cup has nearly the same low AV result as Summer Showdown. Kickoff Clash, held in May and June, remains the leader by all metrics in the OWL 2022 season. That time the tournament attracted a large number of viewers because of the league's shift to Overwatch 2 and the participation of community casters.

Comparing this year's Countdown Cup tournament to that of the previous year, the 2021 event had a higher AV number (42.8K vs. 32.4K viewers) and slightly more HW (although it had less airtime). A PV number was nearly identical (71.1K vs. 73.8K).

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Within the context of Countdown Cup, it's very interesting to look at what's going on with the Overwatch franchise right now in general. Overwatch 2 was released on October 4, in which the developers updated some mechanics, added new maps, skins, a new character and many other features. As it often happens, the new game's release was marred by different bugs and technical problems, but, in general, the sequel aroused great interest among viewers on the streaming platforms — largely because of the fact that you can get exclusive skins and cosmetic items by watching broadcasts on Twitch.

The release of Overwatch 2 has strengthened the game's position in the category rankings on Twitch — for three weeks after the sequel's release, the team shooter has been consistently in the Top 3. However, we can't say that the release has had any effect on the number of viewers of Overwatch League itself, or specifically Countdown Cup. We should remind you that the professional league shifted to Overwatch 2 at the beginning of the season, but it had some effect only during Kickoff Clash.

Soon we will see whether Overwatch League 2022 playoffs can beat last year's championship. Unlike the Countdown Cup stage, the final stage will feature the strongest teams in the divisions, which will play for a large prize pool and the season championship title. Last year's playoffs racked up 2.5 million HW and drew 134.3K PV — a total that didn't even rank among the Top 15 events in the discipline's history.