After 6 seasons, Blizzard announces the cancellation of the Overwatch Pro League, although Blizzard confirms that it is not withdrawing from competitive gaming completely. “We are transitioning the Overwatch League and evolving competitive play in Overwatch into a new direction,” Activision Blizzard tells IGN.
“We are grateful to everyone who made the OWL possible and remain focused on building our vision for a revitalized esports program. We are even excited to share the details with you all in the near future.” Although the OWL dates back to 2016, it had a lower-than-expected year.
Chengdu Hunters pulled out of the league in June after Overwatch 2 was shut down in China following a licensing dispute between Blizzard and NetEase. After that, the remaining teams experienced a series of layoffs as did Blizzard’s esports teams, The Verge notes. Blizzard tried to help with things like waiving franchise fees, which were between $20 and $35 million. Despite this, the league held a vote on how to proceed and decided, apparently, to call it a day. Each team will receive a termination fee of $6 million from Blizzard, for a total of $114 million. While the rest of the esports world saw a massive increase thanks to lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, it had the opposite effect on the OWL. The travel league was relying heavily on teams visiting each other’s cities and making money from live events, neither of which was possible during the early days of the pandemic. As Activision-Blizzard noted in a financial statement in July, “total revenues from the Overwatch League constitute less than 1% of our total consolidated revenues.” E-sports are also getting smaller and smaller. In 2023, viewership numbers are down 13% compared to last year and down 32% compared to 2021, according to The New York Times.
