Overwatch 2 will likely be the top game on Twitch today - but should it be?

techradar.com:

The Overwatch 2 beta is finally here and players can, at last, get a taste of how the hero shooter plays. With such a long gap between announcement and release, as well as a two-year pause on updates to the original Overwatch, there's been an understandable drop in player numbers and viewers on Twitch. It's fallen behind competitors, such as Valorant. The question is, will the sequel bring that audience back?

If the first day of the Overwatch 2 beta is anything to go by, the answer is a resounding «Yes». At one point last night, Overwatch was the most viewed category on Twitch. It peaked at a staggering 510,000 concurrent viewers, the most it's ever had. It’s looking likely it'll peak even higher today. Can we believe the numbers, though?

In order to reach eyes, Blizzard is making use of a Twitch Drop program to get players watching. Invites to the Overwatch 2 beta were limited on launch day, and if you didn’t get picked then, the only guaranteed way to access the beta is to watch four hours of Twitch streamers between 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET/6 PM BST and 6:00PM PT/9 PM PT/2 AM BST today. (For more information on how this works, check out our Overwatch 2 beta sign-up guide.) Naturally, this means there'll be a huge boost to the number of viewers on Twitch, as players look to get into the beta log on to watch streams and get themselves an invite. 

On top of that, some of the biggest streamers on Twitch are taking part in the Drop promotion, including Pokimane and XQC (who famously was part of the Overwatch League). This'll mean that their already massive audiences, who are accustomed to more variety, will be tuned in to watch the Overwatch 2 beta. 

Of course, this will result in entirely inflated numbers for Overwatch 2’s