Activision Blizzard and YouTube have signed a streaming deal. It gives the latter exclusive rights to broadcast the publisher’s esports matches. These rights used to belong to Twitch.
Eurogamer writes about this. There are very few details about the deal. It is unknown how much the license cost YouTube. According to media reports, a similar agreement between Activision Blizzard and Twitch in 2018 was $90 million. The cost of a YouTube deal can be comparable to this amount.
What does this mean for YouTube and Twitch?
The YouTube Live service will broadcast Activision Blizzard esports matches. For example, Call of Duty League from January 24 and Overwatch League from February 8. The broadcasts will be broadcast to the whole world, except China.
Both leagues are world—class events, taking into account the popularity of the named IP. For YouTube, such a deal is an opportunity to increase its share in the streaming services market. Recall that Twitch itself, as well as Mixer and Facebook Gaming are among its competitors.
Recently, a number of analysts reported that YouTube Live is gradually increasing both the share and the hours of views and broadcasts. At the end of 2019, the service already occupied 22.1% of the market, according to StreamLabs and Newzoo. During the year, the site’s users viewed 901 million hours. The deal with Activision Blizzard will obviously improve these indicators this year.
The market leader with a 61% share is still Twitch. But in the last quarter, the service recorded a drop in metrics due to the departure of top streamers. And it can be assumed that the loss of exclusive rights to broadcast Activision Blizzard matches will affect its dynamics even worse.
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