Overwatch 2 beta breaks viewership record for Blizzard shooter on Twitch

The hype for Overwatch 2 is real ⁠— the first day of the open beta has broken Twitch viewership records for the Blizzard shooter since its 2015 launch. More than 1 million concurrent viewers tuned in with codes on the line, tripling the previous peak.

Overwatch 2’s long-awaited open beta finally dropped on April 26, and 24 hours later, Twitch records came tumbling down.

The FPS title has not seen much success on the platform in recent years ⁠— especially since Blizzard signed an exclusivity agreement with YouTube for the Overwatch League.

However, the whirlwind first day of the Overwatch 2 open beta had viewers on Twitch hooked, with the game reporting its best ever numbers on the streaming service.

Viewership peaked at more than 1.46 million concurrent watchers on April 27, according to Sullygnome.

The beta smashed through Overwatch’s previous viewership record on Twitch of around 460,000 back on January 10, 2018 ⁠— lining up with the first day of the inaugural season of the Overwatch League.

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Blizzard reported the Overwatch 2 beta cracking 1.5 million concurrent viewers on Twitch.

It wasn’t just the category that thrived though. Individual streamers like Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel broke their all-time viewership records thanks to Overwatch 2. The Twitch juicer peaked at more than 310,000 viewers — trumping his previous record of 278,000.

The new peak has pushed Overwatch into the top 10 gaming categories on Twitch in terms of peak viewership. It trails behind Valorant, with their beta launch in April 2020 raking in 1.73 million viewers, as well as League of Legends’ all-time peak of more than 3 million.

Fortnite (2.28m), Minecraft (1.93m), CS:GO (1.91m), Dota 2 (1.71m), and Warzone (1.61m) also feature before the Blizzard title, but it managed to shoot past iconic streaming titles like Rust, Lost Ark, GTA V, and World of Warcraft.

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Numbers like these are unlikely to be seen again with viewership spurred on by tantalizing drops. With the beta running well into May though, the hype is only going to continue. At least for some, the wait has been worth it.