Overwatch World Cup 2023 Online Qualifiers — EMEC, APAC get returning event off to good start
After a gap of three years, the Overwatch World Cup has returned, with the competition being bigger than ever. The Online Qualifiers — consisting of teams from three conferences: Europe and Middle East (EMEC), Asia-Pacific (APAC), and Americas — ended on July 2, with these events combining to become the most watched qualifier stage in this event's history.
The 15 qualified sides from above will join one team from China at Blizzcon 2023 in the Group Stage, taking place on LAN from October 29 to November 1. This phase at the Anaheim Convention Center in California will have no audience, although the top eight units from here will do battle in a single-elimination bracket Finals in front of thousands of fans from November 3 to November 4.
Overwatch World Cup 2023 qualified teams
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Viewership stats from Overwatch World Cup 2023 Online Qualifiers
The qualifying process this time started in January, with 36 countries and regions announced alongside the opening of competition committee applications. Moreover, there was an open tournament format, the World Cup Trials, accompanying the regular tryouts for this mega Overwatch competition.
In February, these trials earned winning players direct spots in the tryouts for their teams, with players still able to sign up for regular tryouts in March. However, regular tryouts had a Competitive Rank requirement of Diamond and above, with the final roster of players and teams heading into battle mode starting in June.
This time, there are quite a few players from the Overwatch Contenders, as a result, but the majority are still from the Overwatch League. It also meant most of the 16 qualified sides have a mix of players either from different OWL teams or competition tiers.
The Overwatch World Cup 2023 Americas Conference hit 1.2M Hours Watched, 80K Peak Viewers, and 41K Average Viewers over 30 hours and 50 minutes of airtime. The United States, Canada, and Mexico were the three sides from Group A to make the cut, while it was Colombia and Brazil to go through from Group B.
Apart from the official Overwatch Twitch channel, jay3 and supertf — two retired players who currently created content around the game — alongside flats made the top three for most watched and most popular channels to watch the competition.
The Overwatch World Cup 2023 Europe and Middle East Conference recorded 2.9M HW, 90K PV, and 52K AV over an airtime of 56 hours and five minutes. Great Britain, Spain, and France progressed to the Group Stage from Group A, where they were joined by Saudi Arabia and Finland from Group B.
There were fewer individuals who shone here when it comes to discussing the success of broadcasters. owBRAIN — a competitive Overwatch player — was the third-most-popular channel, while ml7support — a content creator who specializes in support gameplay in Overwatch 2 — ended as the second-most watched.
The Overwatch World Cup 2023 Asia-Pacific Conference reached 834K HW, 103K PV, and 25K AV over 32 hours of airtime. South Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong made their way to the Group Stage from Group A, while Group B’s Australia and Thailand were the ones to continue their quest to become the first world champion of the Overwatch 2 era.
Its high popularity will be a big boost for Blizzard Entertainment, with the success of South Korea and Japan proving crucial, as they are two massive markets for the discipline. In fact, it was their clash on the Final Day that did the highest peak concurrent viewership so far, while streamers from these two nations also had a field time.
Ta1yo_tv, the Japanese/American ZETA DIVISION player, was the most popular and third-most watched channel. Dafran, the retired Danish Overwatch player who now streams the game, was the third most popular channel among fans from this region.
Comparing these three Overwatch World Cup 2023 Conferences
The Overwatch World Cup 2023 EMEC Conference was the most watched conference from the Online Qualifiers, while it also gained the most average concurrent viewers. However, the Overwatch World Cup 2023 APAC Conference finished as the most popular one, mostly thanks to the high level of support it received from two specific East Asian nations, as already discussed above.
The Overwatch World Cup 2023 Americas Conference’s stats would have been a bit of a worry for the organizers. With some of the most passionate fans and best players coming from this region, the lack of attention to the event, despite the progress of favorites like the US and Brazil, will be something to work on come the Group Stage and Finals.
Interestingly, while EMEC was dominated by the organization’s channels when it came to successful broadcasting, Americas and APAC had a lot more individual handles making it to the top of the HW and PV lists. This follows the general trends, as the Overwatch Contenders channel is where Europe and the Middle East are mostly represented in this league, while the other two regions enjoy more freedom when it comes to community casting and freedom of streaming among individual handles.
Getting back to the positives, what helped all these streamers and conferences hit such high viewership numbers compared to most previous Overwatch World Cups was that there were lots of rewards available to fans throughout. Those watching the live action on the PlayOverwatch Twitch channel or hosting a watch party by joining the #OWWCStreamTeam were entitled to the prizes like sprays, player icons, and skins.
Of course, the fact that the World Cup has returned after a gap of eight years also helped. The revamped format that involved three conferences, 40 teams, and an equal chance for pros, aspiring pros, and casual players to make the cut seemed to resonate with most of the audiences, leading to a situation where the main part of the highly-coveted competition could end up as the most successful iteration ever.
Lastly, the number of channels and platforms has gone up in these four years, helping these conferences reach more people globally. And with many more ex-esports athletes turned content creators streaming the live-action, there was added motivation for fans to catch up on their favorite tournament and game while watching their most favored online personality.
For those interested, details on tickets for the Group Stage and Finals will be sold in two waves through AXS: if you don’t have an AXS account, make one in advance. The first wave will go on sale Saturday, July 8, at 10 AM PDT. The second wave will go on sale Saturday, July 22, at 10 AM PDT. Get your tickets here, and for more details, go here.
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