Youtube Gaming vs Twitch for the Overwatch League broadcast
Youtube is the new home for Overwatch League 2020, what does this mean for the viewers and the league
Blizzard has announced that starting this year that all their esports competitions, the Overwatch League, and the new Call of Duty League, will be broadcast via Youtube Gaming instead of Twitch. Twitch has been the streaming partner for the last two seasons of OWL, so this has come has a big surprise to the community. The partnership runs deeper than just streaming rights, with Google Cloud providing the game hosting infrastructure as well.
Here are some of the factors that may have led to this new partnership.
Why YouTube wants Overwatch League
Money and market share
Esports and video game streaming is big business right now, with 2019 revenue expected to be higher than $1 billion. For years Twitch has been the dominant streaming platform for both, but now other major players are looking to get a piece of that pie. Popular Twitch streamers are being offered lucrative deals to switch to competing platforms, including Ninja, one of the biggest names in streaming who now streams exclusively on Microsoft owned Mixer.
Youtube is making a similar play by purchasing exclusive rights to the Overwatch League, hoping to bring across viewers from Twitch, and to further establish themselves as a player in the Esports streaming world.
It is not known how much Youtube paid Blizzard for the streaming rights, but it was reported that the initial deal with Twitch was for $90 million for two seasons, so the price for streaming a league with a proven record and established fanbase must be significantly higher.
Why Overwatch League wants Youtube
Name recognition and wider access
Youtube is simply bigger and more well known that Twitch. Alexa.com ranks Youtube as the second most visited site on the web in February 2020, behind only Google (both owned by parent company Alphabet). For comparison Twitch is 35th on that list.
Twitch is more specifically geared towards gaming and esports, and holds a special status in the gaming community as a result. Which is why it is the natural fit for a league that’s trying to appeal to gamers.
However if Overwatch League wants to broaden it’s appeal and bring in more casual fans, including those that don’t also watch streamers via Twitch, then Youtube is a better platform to do this, as these fans are more likely to have heard of Youtube than Twitch. It is a platform that a significant percentage of people use everyday, for news and political content, makeup tutorials, recipe videos. New fans will find it easier to watch via a platform they know and recognise.
Another important factor to consider is availability of the platform. Putting Overwatch League onto Youtube gives it an automatic boost in the number of people that can access it. YouTube is available on all major games consoles, Smart TVs, streaming media devices, and even some cable and satellite providers. If it exists, and you can plug it into a TV, then chances are you can play YouTube through it.
Twitch is available on some, but not all of these devices. Being on YouTube will help Overwatch League to reach new viewers that were not aware of, or unable to easily access the league via Twitch.
Taking the Overwatch League off of Twitch could be seen by some as a snub to the gaming community, which is used to watching Esports competitions on Twitch. In looking to broaden the appeal Blizzard will have to be careful not to alienate their most dedicated fans.
What’s missing
When OWL 2020 begins, it will launch (at least initially) without several major interactivity and monetisation features that were part of the viewing experience in 2019, including the All-Access Pass viewer, Twitch cheer emotes and integrated loot drops.
The All Access Pass was a paid service that provided access to multiple viewing angles for the matches, as well as additional Q and A streams and exclusive in game content. There has been no indication that anything like this will be available via the Youtube platform.
Similarly in game loot drops for watching streams are an integral part of the Twitch experience, used by streamers and esports competitions alike. Viewers could link their Battle.net accounts to Twitch and receive in game rewards (tokens that be redeemed for OWL specific skins). Youtube does not have this functionality right now, but we know that OWL is at least looking into how to offer something similar this year.
In many ways it is remarkable that these issues have not been resolved sooner. Removing some of their monetisation streams is a real step backwards for OWL as a business. It is extra surprising when you consider that one of the key ways to encourage OWL skin sales (token drops) has been stopped, just as the league is introducing updated skins for several teams that have changed their colours for this season.
Blizzard also uses Twitch’s loot drop functionality in some of it’s limited time events, offering exclusive in-game sprays as a reward for watching Twitch streamers. It is possible that future events may also include Youtube streams in these promotions.
It remains to be seen when and how these features are integrated into Youtube for the Overwatch League. I believe that it is important that they are reintroduced on the new platform. If it turns out that the league has changed to a new platform that is in some ways a worse viewing experience because of a large payment from Youtube, then that will look like naked profiteering from Blizzard at the expense of the fans and the sport.
However if they can solve these issues this could be a great opportunity to reach a wider audience and improve awareness of understanding of esports overall. It will be up to them to prove to us that Youtube can be an equally good, or even a better, home for the Overwatch League than Twitch.