Since the Overwatch League announced they would be moving from Twitch to YouTube, fans addressed their concerns and criticisms over the change ranging from lack of token dropes to decrease viewership.However, fans did get some news as Jon Spector, Vice President of Overwatch Esports, took to Reddit to address some concerns.
Speaking about viewership and viewership records. Spector stated the following:
We made the decision to move to YouTube because we believe in the long-term potential of the partnership, though we fully expected some challenges as we worked to transition our audience that had spent years watching us on Twitch. YouTube has some amazing tech, particularly around VOD. We believe a solid VOD system allows our global fan base to more easily watch OWL matches at convenient local times. YouTube remains committed to working with us to deliver an amazing viewing experience for you and help us win over new fans around the world.
We are not satisfied with where things are today. So, we are working with YouTube to improve discoverability of our content while looking at other changes to build excitement and raise the stakes. The May Tournament is a good example of a change in response to that feedback. And I’m excited to share that we are a few weeks away from bringing back token drops for watching on overwatchleague.com and our mobile app. Viewership rewards on YouTube’s platform are still being worked on, but we’re excited to have some form of viewership incentives for fans very soon.
One other big bright spot for us here is that we’re setting records for OWL viewership in Asia now that some matches are being played in primetime there, and the enthusiasm from the fans there has been really great to see.
