The best way into the Overwatch 2 beta boils down to watching a bunch of select streamers on Twitch for four hours, and to the surprise of no one, this strategy has rocketed Overwatch viewership.
At the time of writing, the Overwatch category is hovering just over 1.4 million viewers, with around one-fifth of those viewers watching popular streamer xQc. Other top streamers are pulling 30,000 all the way up to 130,000 viewers, and there are countless more filling out the category, the vast majority of them playing Overwatch 2 (which is grouped into the same category).
The game's viewership has obviously been greatly inflated by players who are simply tuning in to snag a beta key – some of them probably AFK or on duplicate accounts – but the first Overwatch 2 beta has definitely gotten some eyes on it.
With the launch of Overwatch 2, or at least its PvP component, finally starting to feel like A Real Thing, fans of the long-stagnant shooter are pleased to see it topping Twitch once again.
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Obviously, the game's views will plummet in the days to come as the beta dwindles, but Overwatch viewership has definitely picked up recently. The original game hasn't changed, but Blizzard is finally getting into the nitty-gritty of the sort-of-sequel, explaining character reworks like Orisa's and detailing new characters like Sojourn, which has helped drive some conversation around Overwatch 2.
There are still a lot of questions surrounding the game and its confusing launch – not to mention the equally confusing and undefined PvE portion which is now due sometime in the future despite being positioned as a key difference from the original game – but for the moment there is genuine Overwatch hype in the air. How long that enthusiasm sticks around remains to be seen.
Here are the Overwatch 2 system requirements for the first beta.
