Overwatch League has used traditional stick-and-ball leagues as its model, from its localized teams to the introduction of home games next season.



Now it’s following suit by embracing the average minute audience metric that is used by other traditional leagues and broadcasters over other metrics typically used in esports, such as unique viewers or peak concurrent viewers.



Plugging In



Front Office Sports spoke with Kasra Jafroodi, strategy and analytics lead at Activision Blizzard Esports and who oversees research, measurement, and analytics for the Overwatch League, about the decision.



FOS: Why take this step?



Jafroodi: We recognized that for Overwatch League to be successful, we needed to ensure that we are representing our viewership in a way that everyone can truly understand. We partnered with Nielsen because they’re a trusted name and experts in viewership measurement (and widely cited for linear viewership measurement in the U.S.). Our partnership with Nielsen began over a year ago and they have been responsible for ensuring our audience is measured and represented the same way as traditional sports.



FOS: Is this data resonating with marketers, especially those trying to reach that younger audience?



Jafroodi: Everyone that has seen our viewership figures has been extremely appreciative they finally have numbers they can both understand and compare to their other investments. Most marketers know that the esports audience highly over-indexes in younger audiences, but seeing our 18-34 AMA helps them solidify that thought and make actual investment decisions.

Reaching Out



According to Overwatch League, its 2019 regular season global AMA was 313,000, up 18% year-over-year. In the U.S. specifically, it had an AMA of 95,000, which is up 34% year-over-year. OWL is broadcast on a mix of platforms in the U.S. ranging from Twitch to ABC.



Perhaps most encouraging for OWL was that its 18-34 U.S. AMA for the season was 55,000, which is up 11% year-over-year.



Jafroodi said that means OWL already ranks ahead of some U.S. leagues like MLS and MLB in that particular segment - a point it’s stressing to marketers and potential partners.



“When you take into consideration that every league is declining in the 18-34 demo - while OWL is up 11% - it won’t be long before OWL becomes one of the largest leagues in the U.S.,” he said.