Activision Blizzard goes exclusive with YouTube for esports streaming

[mongeese]

The big picture: Activision Blizzard and Google have partnered on all things streaming, from livestreamed esports tournaments on YouTube, to cloud gaming on Stadia. Yesterday, the first season of the Call of Duty League kicked off with a bang netting almost 700,000 live viewers on the first stream. Tomorrow they’ll have the first ‘Hype Battle’ featuring Black Panther’s Michael B. Jordan. Two weeks from now the third season of Overwatch League will premiere and attempt to top the 13 million views it received during the first week of season two.

YouTube Gaming has won big.

YouTube Gaming has been generally unsuccessful in the past, and even shut down their dedicated app and portal in May. However, in recent months they've been able to swing things around courtesy of a brilliant new strategy: bribery.

They’ve paid a fortune to sign exclusivity deals with some serious streamers, including CouRage, Valkyrae, LazarBeam, and Muselk. Combined, the four have 23.3 million subscribers on the platform.

“With more than 200 million gamers a day watching more than 50 billion hours of gaming content per year, YouTube provides gamers and their passionate fans with the most popular video gaming platform in the world,” said Ryan Wyatt, YouTube’s head of gaming.

Activision Blizzard’s bottom line is no doubt looking pretty good right now, too. They had previously entered a $90 million deal with Twitch to stream the first two seasons of the Overwatch League on the platform, so Google must have outbid them for the next few seasons.

“Both the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League are the quintessential examples of world class esports content. As a former Call of Duty esports commentator myself, I couldn’t be more excited for Activision Blizzard to choose YouTube as its exclusive home for the digital live streaming of both leagues. This partnership further demonstrates our dedication to having a world class live streaming product for gaming.”

It’s also possible Google offered incentives relating to hosting the games on Google Stadia. None of Activision Blizzard’s major games are presently available on Stadia, but after today’s exclusivity announcement, they can’t be far away.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/83720-activision-blizzard-goes-exclusive-youtube-esports-streaming.html

 

[Uncle Al]

“more than 200 million gamers a day watching more than 50 billion hours of gaming content per year"

And we wonder why we have an obesity problem as well as an anti-social problem with kids today?

 

[MarkHughes]

“more than 200 million gamers a day watching more than 50 billion hours of gaming content per year"

And we wonder why we have an obesity problem as well as an anti-social problem with kids today?

I can hardly wrap my head around those numbers, 3 times the UK population or more than half the US population. I can only assume China is bumping up the numbers. I had no idea it was such a big thing.

 

[Puiu]

The end of OW as an esport

 

[Hexic]

I can hardly wrap my head around those numbers, 3 times the UK population or more than half the US population. I can only assume China is bumping up the numbers. I had no idea it was such a big thing.

And old geezers were wondering and complaining that Overwatch was being shown on ESPN, when e-sports has a larger daily audience than their Super Bowl does on gameday.

Ignorance knows no bounds.

 

[Evernessince]

The end of OW as an esport

You don't need to worry about that. Blizzard will most likely screw itself more then anything this deal will do.

 

[Puiu]

You don't need to worry about that. Blizzard will most likely screw itself more then anything this deal will do.

The whole "home team" regional format is already destroying the OW League. They lost so much talent from casters, staff and players.

 

[Evernessince]

The whole "home team" regional format is already destroying the OW League. They lost so much talent from casters, staff and players.

That was more likely due to blizzard offering them less money then they got the first year (at least for staff and casters).

Can't comment on the players.

 

[Puiu]

That was more likely due to blizzard offering them less money then they got the first year (at least for staff and casters).

Can't comment on the players.

Many of them left because of the schedule. The new league format means that they have to travel for each match to the home town of the team. The money is also a big problem.

 

[Unusual Kmc]

“more than 200 million gamers a day watching more than 50 billion hours of gaming content per year"

And we wonder why we have an obesity problem as well as an anti-social problem with kids today?

classic boomer quote.

cmon man, have some class. Video games don't cause obesity. What, do you think your computer starts giving you fast food and automatically ordering McDonalds???

 

[CharmsD]

The zhaghzhagh is strong with this one.

 

[Evernessince]

Many of them left because of the schedule. The new league format means that they have to travel for each match to the home town of the team. The money is also a big problem.

Depends how many have left. After all the same thing happened in a prior season: https://kotaku.com/four-players-have-quit-overwatch-league-in-the-last-two-1833918791

 

[CharmsD]

Depends how many have left. After all the same thing happened in a prior season:
https://kotaku.com/four-players-have-quit-overwatch-league-in-the-last-two-1833918791

Those are four seriously principled individuals. [head:nod]

 

[Puiu]

Depends how many have left. After all the same thing happened in a prior season: https://kotaku.com/four-players-have-quit-overwatch-league-in-the-last-two-1833918791

Yeah, but you have to look at the reasons and when the decisions were made. It's very different from other years. I've never seen such an exodus of high profile people before (especially from the staff side).

 

[ShObiT]

classic boomer quote.

cmon man, have some class. Video games don't cause obesity. What, do you think your computer starts giving you fast food and automatically ordering McDonalds???

Fun fact is, the Only country with such Obesity problem is the US and maybe Canada, other than that, there's other important issues, like corruption.

 

[kevbev89]

Fun fact is, the Only country with such Obesity problem is the US and maybe Canada, other than that, there's other important issues, like corruption.

If we are talking about addicted crazy gamers, Asia tops out the US in terms of intensity (not quantity). Personally I think a lot has to do with the diet. Fried food, as good as it is, is just a fat magnet.