An Overwatch League fan has made a chart that reveals how much of the streams are made up of ads and not gameplay. Blizzard has been criticized for its Overwatch League Cheez-It ads, as viewers said that the crunch time screen showed up in the middle of a fight between several characters.
On Reddit, an Overwatch League fan showed a chart that they had made of the Overwatch League 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, is Overwatch gameplay.
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 for Overwatch League comes with bonuses for hitting ad targets, which means that Blizzard can make money from ads in several ways.
Fans know that Overwatch League 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 the Overwatch League 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 one criticism fans have had about the Overwatch League's YouTube deal.
The frustration with ads also reveals why so many fans were upset when Blizzard hit a popular Overwatch League 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's Overwatch League 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 like Overwatch League 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 next Overwatch League will hopefully make fans much happier.
Overwatch is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Reddit