Battle of Undefeated Teams Boosts Viewership for Week 3 of the Overwatch League
By Nicholas Barth ·
The Battle of New York Excelsior and Seoul Dynasty brought back the excitement that has been missing since Week 1.
Blizzard's Overwatch League had an amazing opening week that proved to the esports world that people want to watch the highest level of professional Overwatch, which is what all new esports league hope for in their debuts. Week 2 saw a major drop in viewership for the league with the average viewership across the main, Korean and French Twitch channels dropping from 109,400 in Week 1 to 75,300 in week two. The viewership of the league took another dip to begin week three, but got a huge spike thanks to the match between the undefeated South Korean teams of New York Excelsior and Seoul Dynasty. At one point, 182,000 viewers were watching the highly anticipated matchup, which was the highest for week 3 and the highest viewership for a match since Week 1.
Seoul and New York delivered what many are calling the best match of the Overwatch League's young life. Both teams have some of the most talented players in the world, such as Seoul's Byung-Sun "Fleta" Kim and New York's Sung-hyeon "JJoNak" Bang. The promise of seeing two undefeated teams, full of superstar talent, face off brought back the hype that had left the league after Week 1. Both teams did not disappoint, as they went back and forth in an epic five game series that saw the New York Excelsior defeat the Seoul Dynasty 3-2.
Many industry professionals point to Overwatch's frantic action being difficult for new viewers to understand as the culprit for the dip in viewership from Week 1.
Source: Boston Herald.
The challenge for the Overwatch League going forward will be retaining these kinds of viewership numbers for upcoming weeks. With the playoff picture for stage one beginning to take form it will be no surprise to see viewership stay at a healthy number. Fans will be tuning in to see the lower tier teams fight to make the playoffs, while the top tier teams duke it out to be the very best.
It will not be surprising to see both the New York Excelsior and Seoul Dynasty continue to bring in massive amounts of viewers every week they compete.