Mentioned in this article Games: Clash Royale, Overwatch

The Capcom Pro Tour 2018, Capcom’s professional circuit for Street Fighter V, announced today that it has added new broadcast partners. In addition to Twitch, CPT events will be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] In this era of exclusivity, it is interesting that the CPT has added new platforms rather than locking in a single partner. [/perfectpullquote]

While Twitch continues to dominate the streaming market, YouTube and Facebook have been aggressively targeting esports through exclusive deals. In January, Facebook signed an exclusive deal with ESL for the English streaming rights to the ESL Pro League and ESL One circuit, taking the Pro League rights away from YouTube. In 2017, YouTube exclusively partnered with FACEIT’s Esports Championship Series, and has streamed exclusive tournaments for games like Clash Royale. Twitch has also fought for exclusivity, reportedly paying $90 million for the rights to broadcast the Overwatch League.

Streaming across multiple platforms had been the norm for tournament organizers in the past. However, in recent years as Facebook and YouTube have tried to break Twitch’s stranglehold on the market, exclusive deals have become commonplace. In this era of exclusivity, it is interesting that the CPT has added new platforms rather than locking in a deal with a single partner.

Street Fighter should have been an attractive proposition for platforms looking for any way to take market share away from Twitch. Facebook has even gone after exclusive rights to smaller games like Paladins in the past. With fighting games on the rise, and Street Fighter still leading the charge, it is surprising that no platform managed or wanted to secure an exclusive partnership.

That said, this decision is more in line with the Fighting Game Community’s philosophy of inclusivity. Facebook and YouTube are important content platforms within fighting games, so their inclusion in the biggest fighting game circuit does seem more natural than restricting their fans to a single platform. In general, esports fans are not in favor of exclusive deals, so it is possible Capcom did not want to deal with the potential blowback of forcing viewers on to YouTube or Facebook.

Yesterday, Capcom also announced its CPT 2018 sponsors, namely Razer, Vertagear, and Victrix.

The Capcom Pro Tour kicks off this weekend at Final Round 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia with full coverage on all three platforms.