When pitching Overwatch League and Call of Duty League to potential team investors, Activision Blizzard laid out how money from media-rights deals would bring in big revenue. And that’s exactly what happened -- at first -- in the form of a three-year, $160 million deal with YouTube starting in early 2020. That deal expired before the start of this season, and CDL moved back to Twitch -- but without any money coming in.
In terms of viewership, that move has paid off. Data from Stream Hatchet shows that CDL saw its hours watched jump 3x in Q1 vs. the same period last year, mostly due to a number of popular live co-streaming options on Twitch. And not only has CDL jumped on Twitch, but Stream Hatchet also reports that in Q1 2023, Twitch dominated all live esports viewership with 65% market share vs. YouTube’s 28% at No. 2.
So why did Activision this week surprise the industry by reportedly being in the process of inking a two-year deal to return to YouTube starting next season (terms of which have not been made available)?
The answer likely lies not in media dollars, but in the lengthy process of Microsoft seeking to acquire Activision Blizzard. As it stands, Activision uses Google Cloud as a major provider for some of its game-hosting infrastructure. Sources tell SBJ that the call to leave Amazon-owned Twitch for Google-owned YouTube came from higher-ups, with the esports operation division and team owners not having much, if any, say in the matter.
Consolidating deals around Google/YouTube may look cleaner on paper and make for a smoother acquisition process. One potential hurdle? If this move is being made for the betterment of the acquisition, and Microsoft after closing a deal subsequently punts on esports or farms it out to third parties with little to no support, the CDL is, in the short term, locked into a platform with around a third of the audience it was seeing on Twitch. -- Kevin Hitt
