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The Overwatch League (OWL) is calling it quits after six seasons, though Blizzard says it's not bowing out of competitive gaming entirely.
"We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction," Activision Blizzard tells IGN. "We are grateful to everyone who made OWL possible and remain focused on building our vision of a revitalized esports program. We are excited to share details with you all in the near future."
The OWL, which dates back to 2016, had a less-than-stellar year. The Chengdu Hunters quit 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 suffered a series of layoffs as did Blizzard's esports staff, The Verge notes. Blizzard tried to help with things like waiving the franchise fees, which were between $20-$35 million. Despite that, the league took a vote about how to proceed and, apparently, decided to call it quits.
Each team will receive a $6 million termination fee from Blizzard, a $114 million total payout.
While the rest of the esports world saw a huge boom thanks to the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, it had the opposite effect on the OWL. The travel league depended heavily on teams visiting each other's cities and made money from live events, neither of which was possible during the early days of the pandemic. As Activision-Blizzard noted in a July financial statement, "total revenues from the Overwatch League comprise less than 1% of our consolidated net revenues."
The esports is also getting progressively smaller. In 2023, viewership numbers are down 13% from last year and 32% down from 2021, the New York Times reports.