The Dallas Homestand was a ratings success for the Overwatch League, drawing the highest viewership of any Stage Two event this season, according to a report from The Esports Observer.





This bump in viewership reflects the warm reception that the OWL’s first-ever home game event received from the Overwatch scene at large.





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The total hours watched on each day of the Homestand exceeded those of every other day in Stage Two thus far. Saturday averaged 138,000 concurrent viewers—despite a power outage that caused the stream to go down for over 40 minutes—and Sunday came through with 148,000 CCV. The weekend’s highest viewership occurred during the all-Texas rivalry match between the Dallas Fuel and the Houston Outlaws on Sunday, which peaked at a CCV of 164,000.





Although the Homestand featured only two days of action, a reduction from the usual OWL schedule incorporating four days of play, the 2.4 million hours watched over the weekend was only 500,000 less than the 2.9 million hours watched over the corresponding four days last year. Additionally, the OWL far exceeded the max concurrent viewership reached this week last year. The event was a strong rebuke to the viewership decline woes experienced by the league earlier this stage.





With exciting games, a hype venue, and significant viewership growth from last year, the Dallas Homestand is evidence that the OWL is headed in the right direction in 2020.