Results of Overwatch League 2022 Midseason Madness: different format had negative impact on viewership

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Midseason Madness, the second of four tournaments within the Overwatch League 2022, ended last weekend. Participants competed for a share of $1 million prize pool, and the winner was Los Angeles Gladiators, which defeated San Francisco Shock with a score of 4:2 in the final.

The Overwatch League 2022 Midseason Madness was preceded by a regional qualifier that went for almost a month in an online format. Matches were played in two divisions: Western and Eastern. At the end of the series, eight best teams from the Western Division and four from the Eastern Division advanced to the main stage. Because of the coronavirus and difficult logistics, the organizers have decided to hold Midseason Madness matches in a hybrid LAN/Online format. Teams from the Eastern Division played at their bootcamps, and representatives of the Western Division gathered at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. This was the attempt of the management of OWL to solve the ping problem.

The final stage of the Overwatch League 2022 Midseason Madness was held in a double-elimination playoffs bracket, where teams from the top 4 were seeded straight into the second round and could choose their opponents. On their way to the final, the Los Angeles Gladiators defeated the Houston Outlaws (3:0) and Hangzhou Spark (3:2), but then lost to the San Francisco Shock (2:3) and fell into the lower bracket. After defeating Atlanta Reign (3:1), the team from Los Angeles met with the San Francisco Shock again and was able to take revenge.

Viewership statistics

Statistics of Overwatch League 2022 Midseason Madness

In total, the matches of Overwatch League 2022 Midseason Madness (including qualifiers) generated 5.7M Hours Watched. The broadcast attracted 37.7K Average Viewers and 70.3K Peak Viewers. The grand final attracted the most viewers, and the Los Angeles Gladiators became the most watched team: matches with their participation generated a little more than 1M Hours Watched.

It is interesting to note that all the teams from the Western Division turned out to be more popular than any team from the Eastern Division in terms of Average Viewers. In comparison, the London Spitfire attracted the fewest viewers on broadcasts (45.9K Average Viewers) in the Western conference, but it was still much more than the Shanghai Dragons (34.4K Average Viewers), which became the most popular team from the Eastern Division.

The main language of the broadcast was English, gathering 62.8K Peak Viewers and more than 85% of the tournament’s total Hours Watched. The second and third spots went to Korean and French streams, which gathered 8.1K and 2.4K, respectively. Viewers followed Midseason Madness on YouTube, which has an exclusive contract with Blizzard to cover most of the company's esports tournaments.

Comparison with other seasons

Comparison of regular OWL Tournaments by the audience in 2021 and 2022

Midseason Madness fell far behind the Overwatch League 2022 Kickoff Clash in terms of audience and also became one of the least popular tournaments of 2021-2022. It has the worst result in terms of Average Viewers and one of the worst results in terms of Peak Viewers. While Midseason Madness is ahead of many tournaments of 2021 in terms of Hours Watched, it should be noted that due to the format change, the airtime of events in 2022 has increased by about 1.5 times (by 50-60 hours).

For comparison, the first tournament of 2022 (Kickoff Clash) showed the best result in terms of Hours Watched and Peak Viewers. This was mostly because Blizzard allowed community streamers to broadcast some of the league's matches. The company abandoned this practice during Midseason Madness, causing a severe drop in indicators.

It is also important to remember that there was no overlap between the teams from the Western and Eastern Divisions during the Kickoff Clash. They had separate prize pools and separate match schedules that were more convenient for fans from each region. As a result, the broadcasts attracted more viewers as compared to Midseason Madness, where all the teams played in the same time zone.

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Qualifiers for the Summer Showdown will take place in the Western and Eastern Divisions from August 11 to September 4. This tournament will be the third in the Overwatch League 2022 series. It will be held on September 8-11 in Toronto and will resemble Kickoff Clash in terms of format, featuring separate brackets and prize pools.