Overwatch 2 streamers and pros demand competitive in beta amid declining Twitch viewers

Overwatch 2’s first beta is wrapping up soon, but streamers and pros want Blizzard to add a competitive beta to the game as Twitch viewers keep dropping off.

When the Overwatch 2 beta launched, Blizzard saw record Twitch viewership as fans flocked to the streaming platform for a chance to earn beta access.

Now that the dust has settled leaving both streamers and viewers with time to try out the new game, the novelty of some new maps, 5v5 gameplay and one new hero seems to have worn off. In fact, Overwatch 2 crashed like crypto and lost 99% of its viewership in just one week.

With just quick play available for players and no ranked mode options, the beta’s lack of stakes has some streamers going back to Overwatch 1 for competitive even though they’d rather be playing OW2.

Streamers demand ranked mode in Overwatch 2 beta

On May 12, popular streamer and former Overwatch League champion Matthew ‘Super’ DeLisi claimed he wasn’t enjoying the beta as much as he wanted to.

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“I enjoy the changes they’ve made to heroes but something feels not right. Maybe it’s the lack of a competitive mode, small map pool, or something else,” he pondered. “Curious if anyone else relates.”

The thread spawned numerous replies with many agreeing that the lack of ranked play was a major drawback and prevented them from wanting to keep investing time into it.

“5v5 isn’t bad but 6v6 is just simply more fun to play, and it’s pretty cool how Blizzard decided to just completely kill the OW2 hype by refusing to add ranked,” said Atlanta Reign DPS Nicholas ‘Speedily’ Zou.

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“Quick play for a game that’s been out for 6 years is just not fun,” remarked Houston Outlaws pro Dante ‘Danteh’ Cruz. “All the new changes are good but just not enough content and there’s no incentive to keep playing [because] no ranked.”

Rising Twitch streamer ‘Flats’ shared a similar sentiment, claiming that not being able to switch sides on a map like in the ranked ruleset makes matches “less interesting.”

Danish hitscan legend Daniel ‘Dafran’ Francesca agreed, simply replying “need ranked” to the original thread.

Will Blizzard add ranked to Overwatch 2 beta?

Despite the game not currently having a ranked mode, the developers have indicated they are planning to implement sweeping changes to the system in a future update.

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“We’re planning some significant overhauls of our core ranked and competitive mode systems, and those are not yet ready to test publicly at scale,” the devs said in a blog post.

So far, there’s no telling when players will get a chance to try out these changes.

In the meantime, it seems like streamers would be fine with the original game’s ranked component to tide them over. Whether Blizzard decides to give them that remains uncertain.