Overwatch League 2022 — the league's viewership downward spiral continues

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Summer Showdown, the third event of the year in the Overwatch League 2022, ended on the 11th of September, with Shanghai Dragons coming out victorious in the East, while the Dallas Fuel won in the West.

The Overwatch League is one of the biggest esports leagues in the world, competing with many top leagues from various different games. However, its viewership results haven't been as good as some of its main rivals like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Valorant. 

Overwatch League 2022 Viewership Stats

It’s easy to see that the Overwatch League viewership has been diminishing over the years, despite a slight increase in the first tournament of 2022, Kickoff Clash. This was due o the fact that it was the first event in the history of the Overwatch League that was played in Overwatch 2. Another factor that contributed to the great viewership numbers that Kickoff Clash was able to achieve, was the community casting that was done exclusively on YouTube. Some notable streamers such as DrLupo, and ex-Overwatch League caster Sideshow, co-streamed the event.

Overwatch League 2022 Summer Showdown continues the trend of diminishing viewership, as the event was the least popular of the last two years, with just 51K Peak Viewers. The event was broadcasted for 147 hours, and over this time viewers spent 4.2 million hours watching the event. The Average Viewership of the Overwatch League 2022 Summer Showdown further confirms that the league is on a downward spiral. The event only had 28K concurrent viewers, a very low number, especially if compared to the 2021 edition of the event, which had 48K Average Viewers. 

The 2021 edition of Summer Showdown beats this year's version in all the viewership metrics apart from one, the Airtime. While the 2022 edition had the second longest Airtime of all the events in the last two years with 147 hours, in 2021 the event was streamed for 95 hours. 

If you look at the first two tournaments in 2022 they are the exception to the rule. Both the 2022 Kickoff Clash, and Midseason Madness improved their viewership compared to last year. Kickoff Clash had 121K Peak Viewers, the highest of all the tournaments of the past two years. It was also the most watched event of the last two years with 7.3 million Hours Watched. 

The 2022 Kickoff Clash had an increase of 77% in terms of Hours Watched, 70% in Peak Viewership, and 17% in Average Viewers, when compared to Overwatch League 2021 Countdown Cup, the last event of the 2021 Overwatch League. It was also the only tournament that was able to defy the downward trend in Average Viewers, having 50K AV the second most of all the tournaments in the past two years of Overwatch League.

If you compare the same events but from different years, we can see that when it comes to hours watched, viewers actually watched the first and second events of 2022 more. As mentioned previously, Kickoff Clash 2022 had some great viewership numbers. Midseason Madness also defeated its predecessor June Joust in Hours Watched, but had a much lower number of Peak Viewers and Average Viewers. 

The main issues with the Overwatch League viewership are that they saw a huge dip in the PV and AV numbers. Even Kickoff Clash 2022, which pulled some great viewership numbers, had 50K Average Viewers, while May Melee 2021 had 69K concurrent viewers, and did that while having less Airtime. This is a systematic trend across all the 2022 events, they all have fewer Average Viewers than last year's edition, despite having been broadcasted for much more hours. 

When it comes to the most watched broadcasts, the English one is by far the most-watched, and more viewers are preferring the English stream, over the French, Korean, and other regional streams. In this event, the English broadcast had 25K PV, the lowest of the past two years. The PV continues to follow the downward trend that started in June Joust 2021 (excluding 2022 Kickoff Clash). While Kickoff Clash allowed community co-streams exclusively on YouTube, which helped the event increase its viewership numbers. The following events didn't follow this trend, and it’s clear that it made them lose viewers. 

The Korean broadcast is the second most watched, and when it comes to PV it follows the same trend as the main English broadcast, it continues to get fewer and fewer simultaneous viewers. It’s no different with the French broadcast, the third biggest on this list, as their numbers continue to diminish at a steady pace. 

In 2021, over the first three events of the year, viewers watched 16.3 million hours of the English broadcasts, and this year the number increased to 15 million hours. This means that 82.2% of HW in 2021 belonged to the English broadcast, and in 2022 that number was even bigger at 87%. The English stream tops all the viewership metrics by a significant margin

The regional broadcasts, apart from the English one, have lost a lot of viewers in the past year. The French one had the most significant decline, from 1.1 million HW, which was the equivalent of 5,62% of all the HW, to 604K hours and just 3.5% of all the HW of the Overwatch League 2022.

But the Korean one also saw a reduction in the number of HW. In 2021, the Korean broadcast was watched for 2.4 million hours, and made up 12.2% of all the HW. This year the viewers watched the stream for 1.5 million hours, and made up 9.2% of the HW. These numbers make it clear that the regional broadcasts are losing many viewers. 

Another astonishing difference is the popularity between the West teams and the East teams. In the top 15 most popular teams by Average Viewers, 13 of the teams are from the West. This indicates that clearly, the West teams have much more fans than their East counterparts, despite the fact some of the best teams in the League are from the East. 

So far this year the Los Angeles Gladiators have 51K Average Viewers, and are in first place when it comes to AV. The San Francisco Shock occupy the second position with 48K Average Viewers, with the New York Excelsior having 47K AV and closing the top three. Shanghai Dragons have 30K AV and are the East team with the highest number of AV on the list. Despite that, the team still has less 10K AV, than the London Spitfire, which has the lowest AV of all the teams in the West. 

It’s clear that viewers aren't as interested in the Overwatch League this year, and the stats back that up. They do have more hours watched, but they also broadcast much more hours, and when it comes to Average Viewers, and Peak Viewers, the numbers left a lot to desire for such a big league as the Overwatch League, which has the goal to become the biggest FPS esports league in the world. 

Eastern teams also show a much smaller number of Average Viewers, and overall fans, which is also not a good sign for the league. It means the league is losing popularity around the world, something we can also see from the fall in popularity of the regional broadcasts. The Overwatch League definitely needs to reinvent itself. 

The next Overwatch League event will be the Countdown Cup. The qualifiers will start on the 24th of September and will end on the 8th of October. On the 10th of October the main event will begin, with four teams from the West, and three from the East attending the event. This year's main event of Countdown Cup will serve as the Play-Ins for the 2022 Overwatch League Playoffs, the final event of the current season.