Miller says part of the League’s strategy for attracting new (and perhaps many of the lapsed) viewers is through a new co-streaming program debuting this season. “We expect a massive influx of new viewers this year and we want to make sure that as a League, we are making the gameplay and tournaments as accessible and as easy to watch as possible,” he said. Though the one-day high doesn’t seem to indicate an organic increase in interest OverwatchMiller does believe the newness of Overwatch 2 will correlate to an improvement in viewership. When the promotion ended the next day, those numbers fell off a very steep cliff. The bump neatly coincided with a one-day promotion that guaranteed OW2 closed beta keys to viewers who watched at least four hours of select streamers.

The day after Overwatch 2 began its closed beta, the game enjoyed its most popular day on Twitch ever, amassing over 1.5 million competitor views. Sean Miller, the League’s new commissioner, who took over the role about six months ago, is banking that the new game will be critical to this season’s success. The Overwatch 2 beta also brings with it a new game mode called Push, eliminating the much maligned (but honestly not that bad) Assault mode. Matches will be scaled from six players per team to five, eliminating one of the two tank roles in the standard format of two tanks, two healers, and two damagers. This season, the Overwatch League will be played on the Overwatch 2 beta. The Verge spoke with League commissioner Sean Miller who discussed the challenges, triumphs, and expectations of a radically new Overwatch League. And the League itself is struggling with waning popularity amid backlash against its embattled developer, a lengthy off-season, and beloved players and talent leaving the League for greener pastures. The pandemic still impacts logistics like international travel and live, in-person events. But with this season of new comes old problems. The fifth season of the Overwatch League is all about “new.” With opening day on May 5th, this season boasts a new 5v5 format, a new game mode, new maps, a new commissioner, and even a completely new game as players shift from Overwatch to the Overwatch 2 beta.

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