Overwatch is becoming a major esport again, according to Envy/Dallas Fuel owner Mike ‘Hastr0’ Rufail.
The former pro Call of Duty player took to Twitter to talk about his excitement for the game’s resurgence in popularity and his belief that things are moving in the right direction.
There has been a growing excitement surrounding Overwatch after Blizzard removed the “2” from the name and returned the game to its 6v6 roots.
Along with the name change, Blizzard released five brand new heroes to the game all at once to refresh the hero shooter. And Overwatch is getting another new hero in Sierra soon.
Hast0 Proclaims Overwatch as a Tier 1 Esport Again
After the expensive failure that was the Overwatch League and the polarising release of Overwatch 2, interest in the game’s esports scene dropped significantly.
Yet, esports veteran Hastr0 claims that the esports scene is thriving again.
It likely helped that his Dallas Fuel team, which returned to Overwatch earlier this year, went undefeated and won the North American Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) while he was tweeting about this.
Leading up to the team’s victory, Hastr0 shared how he was excited for Overwatch again:
“Overwatch is back as a Tier 1 esports title. That is undeniable at this point. The esports lootbox and drops are part of the resurgence alongside amazing advances by the dev team. Generational comeback.”
The lootboxes Hastro mentioned is part of the game’s new incentives for watching pro Overwatch matches.
Viewers receive in-game rewards for watching multiple hours of esports competitions, including one lootbox every for every 15 hours watched.
When asked why he thinks Overwatch esports are doing well again, Hastro responded:
“Major game updates from the dev team, incentive-based viewership rewards for watching the OWCS esports matches, the game is well-balanced and very fun to play right now in my opinion.”
Hastr0 admitted the rewards are a major factor and it certainly has worked as Overwatch esports viewership in 2026 has already overtaken the last couple of years.
According to Esports Charts, over 221.5k viewers tuned into the OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp event earlier this year, beating Overwatch’s peak audiences in 2025 (177k) and 2024 (159k).
Though the hero shooter still has a long way to go to beat the game’s all time peak audience of just over 437k from the inaugural season of the Overwatch League.
Do you think Overwatch is becoming a major esport again? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord.
The esports scene is continuing to shift and evolve with ESL introducing big co-streaming rule changes, which could have widespread effects on the industry.
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