The Overwatch League finished its first major of the 2021 season last weekend, seeing the Dallas Fuel defeat the Shanghai Dragons to claim the victory in the May Melee. The series is the return of the tournament, which officially debuted in 2020, marking the OWL's transition away from regular season play all year to more engaging tournaments at various points, and that plan seems to have done well the viewers.
It has been reported by Forbes that the average-minute-audience (AMA) for the 2021 May Melee was in fact up 51% over the AMA for the 2020 May Melee. The show managed to attract over 95,000 viewers on YouTube, a considerable increase from the 63,000 in 2020. According to the report, Blizzard has also stated that the three league play weeks that led up to the tournament also doubled year-over-year.
These figures only cover some of the platforms that the OWL is broadcast on, as the figures for the Chinese livestreaming service Bilibili, which has exclusive broadcast and production rights of the OWL in China, are yet to be disclosed.
