As of typing, Overwatch has 6.9k viewers, while Apex Legends has 140k.
The difference is so big, that if you chose to round off, then the Overwatch viewer number could be added to Apex’ without Apex’ number changing.
Prior to Apex Legends release, Overwatch had around 20k viewers - the impact of Apex Legends on Overwatch viewers has been enormous.
im also a rounding error short of 5 hands
finally, proof of soy-caused mutation
Surprise surprise, you lose viewership if your game is stale and content is almost non-existent with the exception of skins that are event locked.
What’s even more interesting is the fact that Apex was released just before OWL
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Who woulda guessed that when Overwatch streamers take a break to play the fancy new game OW viewers decrease.
Or could also be that they specifically paid 4 of the most popular OW streamers to play Apex for 1 month / X hours and thats why this happens.
Just a thought.
PS: Same happened to fortnite btw.
Then their strategy produced good results and they’ll keep doing that.
Well its to be expected at first, Apex is a new game so players want to play it (thus they can’t stream another game as well). Its the circle of life, gamers and companies go with the tend :
FPS (Cod, Battlefield etc…) -> Minecraft -> Hero shooters (Overwatch, Warframe etc…) -> Battle Royale (PubG, Fortnite etc…) -> ???
Even if Overwatch wasn’t in a stale state this would of happened, granted it would of been more slowly but it would happen regardless.
Who did they pay?
I don’t think they even need to pay OW streamers, they will gladly play it themselves.
Fortnite is a different story as it is direct competitition. OW is not.
This viewers-counting obsession will bloom even stronger tomorrow, when Far Cry: New Dawn and Metro: Exodus will be released, and then later with Anthem (depending on how buggy the released version will be ^^).
What would you rather watch: GOATS/gimmick streams, or players enjoying a new game that is still fluid and hasn’t been solved?
When Overwatch was new, lots of viewers gravitated to it from League because the latter was too stale. Which is a shame, since today’s Overwatch is way staler than League.
If I as a Twitch viewer want to watch Tracer-play, I will go to either Kabaji’s or Dafran’s channels. If Dafran is streaming Apex Legends exclusively (which he is atm.), I will instead go to Kabaji’s stream.
Which means that I will just switch streamer, not game.
I believe a big chunk of the Overwatch audience is genuinely interested in Apex Legends as well.
Most of the big OW streamers get huge view counts regardless of whether they’re playing OW or something else, people are interested in it yes, but it doesn’t change the fact that if big streamers stream something other than OW that game gets their viewers instead of OW.
Seagull for example.
Yes, they do need to pay some streamers to play it for a few hours at key times. I dont think you know how this business works because you are still shifting the “importance” or reasons for views to games, thats not how it works mate.
The streamer is 85% or more the reason people watch his/her channel, not the game. Your claim of a game being “a rounding error” of the other just because of Twitch views is flawed, because you are attributing or using the views decreasing as a symptom of a “Dead game” and its not. Streamers didnt “leave” OW for its current state, they are simply jumping the wagon of popularity and new games (and or getting paid for the company itself to play it, mostly).
They can change game now and then, but if they for long play something the viewers are not interested in, they will lose viewers.
The game is three years old; streamers always rush to the new and popular games to bring in those views to get that sweet Dolla. Who’da thought?
Can you give me a source on your claim that Seagull is paid to stream Apex Legends?
AL seems very popular among the pro streamers.
Are you asking me if i have access to Seagull’s email and I can provide a copy with the invitation from EA/Origin and a possible NDA contract to play X hours per Y USD ?
No, i dont have it, nor do i need it.
All streamers work like that when they get to a certain level of popularity, Seagull is no different. But hey, you can choose to believe whatever you want, the truth still remains : Twitch views of a certain game are brutally, vastly and absolutely more determined by the Streamers playing it at the time rather than the current state of said game.
Overwatch just isn’t fun to watch… its really simple.
I’ll be so happy when OWL flops dead. Activision has said on the 12th that they are going to push OWL even further allocating even more resources than ever. Nobody should watch OWL.