The Overwatch League could end this season, saddling Blizzard with a $114 million termination fee

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Competing teams will vote on whether to end the League at the end of the current season

Overwatch 2
(Image credit: Blizzard)

The Overwatch League, once one of the highest-profile esports competitions in the world, appears to be nearing its end.

In a recent investor report, developer Activision-Blizzard said that it had recently changed "certain terms of our collaborative arrangements with team entities participating in the Overwatch League." Those new terms mean that "following the conclusion of the current Overwatch League season, the teams will vote on an updated operating agreement."

If the teams don't vote to continue under that new agreement, they'll be paid a "termination fee" of $6 million dollars per team. Essentially, the current members of the League are soon to vote on whether to continue the competition, or to take a payout that sounds like it'll mean the end of the League. Activision-Blizzard says it'd take a $114 million hit if that happens, but that the money it makes from the competition makes up less than 1% of its total revenue.

Elsewhere in the report, the company confirmed that players are tuning out from Overwatch as a whole, stating that "engagement and player investment in Overwatch 2 declined" in the last three months. The development team is reportedly pinning its hopes on next month's Invasion update to help kickstart the community, but it's no secret that the game's relevance has dwindled substantially in recent years. The launch of Overwatch 2 hasn't done enough to reverse an audience that shrank over years of limited investment in Overwatch itself, and it seems that the entire ecosystem is struggling as a result.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.