It's no secret that the Overwatch community has been anticipating the upcoming Overwatch 2 beta. But the hype exploded beyond expectation on Twitch today. 

Overwatch developers recently announced that players could attempt to get into the closed beta via Twitch drops. The requirements? Watch four hours of Overwatch 2 beta streams on Twitch. Many popular streamers and Overatch League players are participating, including Felix "xQc" Lengyel and Brandon "Seagull" Larned. 

It seems that the Overwatch community is really hoping to get into the Overwatch 2 beta. The Overwatch category on Twitch has easily surpassed 1 million concurrent viewers. At the time of writing this article, the Overwatch category boasted 1.3 million concurrent viewers. 

This is an incredible leap for Overwatch, which was all but dying in 2021 and the beginning of 2022. In January of 2022, the Overwatch category reportedly had a little over 12K concurrent viewers on average.

The game had a slow decline the past few years, dropping heavily after 2019. This was due to Blizzard's ongoing controversy with gender discrimination as well as the game's lack of new content. As Overwatch 2 continued to get delayed, many even wondered if the game was going to happen. 

So far, the Overwatch 2 beta has been met with positive reactions from the community. The gameplay is a lot easier to follow for viewers and the game feels a lot more fun to play thanks to some complete hero revamps. Many are hoping that it will revive the Overwatch League as well, which has had very unfortunate viewership as of late.