AnOverwatchLeague fan has made a chart that reveals how much of the streams are made up of ads and not gameplay. Blizzard has beencriticized for itsOverwatchLeague Cheez-It ads, as viewers said that the crunch time screen showed up in the middle of a fight between several characters.
On Reddit, anOverwatchLeague fan showed a chart that they had made of theOverwatchLeague Season 3, week two, day two stream. The stream, which was shown on YouTube as part of an exclusive Overwatch League deal, was four hours and seven minutes long. Out of this, just 36%, or 1 hour and 30 minutes, isOverwatchgameplay.
RELATED:Overwatch 2 Release Details Leaked By Overwatch League Team
47 minutes, or 19%, consisted of ads, 50 minutes, or 20%, was pre and post-game caster commentary and interviews, and 57 minutes (the creator posted a correction below the chart), or 23%, was a segment called Watchpoint. The$160 million YouTube paid forOverwatchLeaguecomes with bonuses for hitting ad targets, which means that Blizzard can make money from ads in several ways.
Fans know thatOverwatchLeague needs to make money to keep running, but on Reddit, many voiced their frustration at seeing the same ads. Many are also upset that they aren’t able to skip them this year. With theOverwatchLeague All-Access Pass, viewers were able to watch the streams without ads, but since moving to YouTube the pass hasn’t been available. It’s unclear if Blizzard will be offering an All-Access Pass this year, and this is just onecriticism fans have had about theOverwatchLeague’s YouTube deal.
The frustration with ads also reveals why so many fans were upset whenBlizzard hit a popularOverwatchLeague YouTuber with a copyright strike, which prompted game director Jeff Kaplan to step in and fix the issue. The YouTuber had posted two videos with highlights from the weekend’sOverwatchLeague streams. If that’s the only way that fans could have watched the 1 hour and 30 minutes of gameplay without being interrupted by a Cheez-It Grooves ad, it’s no surprise why these fans were upset.
Just likeOverwatchLeague players getting better each week, there is hope that Blizzard will be able to respond to fans criticisms of the stream. The deal with YouTube was announced less than a month ago meaning that details about an All-Access Pass may not have been worked out and the use of a crunch time meme shows that the team knows that fans aren’t happy with the ads. The nextOverwatchLeague will hopefully make fans much happier.
Overwatchis available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
