Non-American sides to the fore at Overwatch League 2023 Play-Ins

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The Overwatch League 2023 Play-Ins was conducted from September 9 to September 18 online, with three sides booking their spots at the Overwatch League 2023 Playoffs. It did passable numbers, but with more important events to come, the viewership was what one would expect from an event that is more or less a qualifier for bigger hurdles.

From the East region, Dallas Fuel beat Seoul Dynasty 3:1 in the Qualifying Match to seal its progress. In the West, Boston Uprising defeated Toronto Defiant 3:2 in the Upper Bracket Final while London Spitfire eased past the Ontario, Canada, based side 3:1 in the Lower Bracket Final to advance.

  Most popular matches and essential stas from the Overwatch League 2023 Play-Ins   

The Overwatch League 2023 Play-Ins hit 56K Peak Viewers during the West Play-Ins, Day 1 cross-Atlantic clash between San Francisco Shock and London Spitfire. In fact, three of the top five most popular games came from the first two days, with Toronto Defiant and London Spitfire making three appearances each.

Interestingly, this top five leaderboard had more non-American sides, a trend also reflected in the most popular sides list. Moreover, all the matches were pretty close in terms of their peak concurrent viewership stats, which is a rare occurrence in esports. Overall, this diverse interest from fans also helped the event do 1.1M Hours Watched and 34K Average Viewers over 32 hours of airtime.

Coming back to the most popular sides list, it was Toronto Defiant who sneaked to the top spot, with fans interested in a run that ultimately ended in heartbreak not once but twice. The side eventually finished third in the West Playoffs bracket to just miss out on a chance to be part of the season-ending spectacle.

English remained the dominant language at this Overwatch competition, notching more than 90% of the overall watch time. Alongside YouTube's supremacy in the platform department, this followed a trend that has seen these two come out on top across the 2023 season when looking at these two metrics.

  Comparing the most watched Overwatch tournaments held so far in 2023   

There's nothing much to add comparison-wise as the Overwatch League 2023 Play-Ins served as more of a qualifying step for teams looking forward to finishing the season on a high at the Playoffs. Nevertheless, it ended as the seventh-most watched and eighth-most popular event in the discipline this year.

Overwatch League 2023 Playoffs qualified teams

Atlanta Reign	Florida Mayhem	Houston Outlaws	Boston Uprising
London Spitfire	Hangzhou Spark	Seoul Infernal	Dallas Fuel

The Overwatch League 2023 Playoffs starts on September 28 and concludes on October 1 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. All eight participating teams have been decided, and they will be gearing up to give their best one last time before the season comes to a halt.

It has to be noted that Overwatch's league went through significant changes for 2023, with sides from the Overwatch Contenders series now allowed to compete and participate in the grandest stages the discipline has to offer. That hasn't really helped it reach the dizzying viewership heights of the pre-pandemic era, but there are shoots of positives as it looks ahead to the 2023-2024 season.