While Overwatch might be helping Pornhub’s viewer numbers, Blizzard’s hero-shooter isn’t the cause of happy endings for some of the adult site’s competitors. YouPorn say that last week’s Overwatch League broadcasts caused a significant dip in their traffic.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Overwatch League.
The site released a series of graphs showing the direct impact that OWL seems to have had on their viewership. On the first day of broadcasting, during the decisive match between Los Angeles Valiant and San Francisco Shock, YouPorn say they saw an initial drop in traffic of more than 9%. Furthermore, viewing figures didn’t return to normal for more than seven hours after the beginning of game one.
The second day of broadcast saw a slightly lower drop, but it was still significant, showing viewing figures 8% lower than average during game two, which saw Philadelphia Fusion narrowly beat off Houston Outlaws. Traffic swiftly returned to normal, however, with figures returning to the average for the site not long after game three concluded.
In a slightly creepy statement, YouPorn staff say they’re unphased by the info: “We are excited to find out who will win and be the first Overwatch League Champions. Of course, we are also curious to see how you celebrate and will be keeping an eye on visits to the site before, during and after.” They do also note that “since Overwatch first came out in 2016, it has consistently been one of the top 20 most popular term searches on our site,” which I suppose means that everybody wins.
The first week of the Overwatch League saw huge viewing figures, with more than ten million people tuning in across the four-day event. Peak concurrent viewing figures were in excess of 430,000, so I suppose it’s not surprising that the impact was felt around the internet.