Esport leagues are taking social media by storm! As Activision Blizzard, a video game publisher, enters a multiyear partnership with Google. This partnership will show Activision that Google’s platform could power all of Activision Blizzard’s technical needs.
So this is where YouTube comes in, as YouTube will become the exclusive streaming partner for all of Activision’s e-sports titles. YouTube will stream the upcoming season of the Overwatch League and the Call of Duty League, which has started on Friday, 24 January 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
This deal pushes YouTube in the right direction as YouTube has struggled in its competition with Twitch, the game streaming website, despite the fact that YouTube is the largest website for videos and it the second most visited website on the planet, according to Similar Web.
Before the deal between YouTube and Activision, it was Twitch that had the exclusive deal with Activision for the first two seasons of the Overwatch League, as Twitch has and still is the go-to destination for live stream gaming. However, this is beginning to change due to the fact that competitive live streaming platforms are willing to spend large amount of money to lock in talent and close exclusive deals.
In 2015, YouTube Gaming was launched and it failed to flourish on its own as a distinctive section of YouTube, and earlier this year, the company removed the YouTube Gaming application because it caused “confusion” among YouTube’s viewers. Instead of YouTube Gaming there exists a game-focused hub on YouTube for its viewers to find popular live streams and videos, according to The Verge.
The failure of YouTube Gaming has not stopped YouTube from trying to capture more of the live-streaming market as YouTube has signed exclusive streaming deals with top creators such as Jack “CouRage” Dunlop and Lachlan Power. Despite the fact that many streamers are still on Twitch, like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins the Fortnite star, some streamers have moved to Microsoft’s competing website Mixer.
“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,” Ryan Wyatt, YouTube’s head of gaming, said according to The Verge. “Both the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League are the quintessential examples of world class e-sports content.”
This Activision deal is now a chapter in the ongoing streaming wars saga between online video platforms, streaming services and content creators. In this particular battle it is Amazon owned Twitch competing against Google owned YouTube.
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Written by Mayar Ibrahim. Photo Credit: Unsplash