Overwatch 2 relies on Valorant model, guarantees you beta access

Overwatch 2 PvP Beta begins. You are guaranteed to participate, all you have to do is watch some Twitch. So Blizzard relies on the model that made Riot’s shooter Valorant a huge hit even before the release.

Overwatch 2 was quiet for many years. Fans were angry that Blizzard left the original Overwatch virtually untouched while the sequel was being worked on in the background. Now the wait is finally over as the Overwatch 2 PvP beta is set to begin, at least on PC.

However, not everyone who is interested will have a direct opportunity to take part in the beta – at least that’s what we thought. Because Blizzard is bringing a way to get guaranteed into the Overwatch 2 beta if you watch the game long enough on Twitch.

How do you get into the beta guaranteed? It will be possible to earn access to the beta via Twitch Drops. For this you have to watch a total of 4 hours of streamers playing Overwatch 2 between April 27 at 7:00 p.m. and April 28 at 3:00 a.m. So the promotion has a very limited time window to secure a beta key.

Note that this requires you to have connected your Twitch account to the Battle.net account and have Twitch Drops enabled.

Some of the streamers you can watch for access are:

A full list of all available streamers can be found on the Overwatch 2 official website.

Once you’ve accumulated the 4 hours, you’ll get guaranteed access to the Overwatch 2 PvP Beta via the drops.

The model should already be familiar to some shooter fans, because Valorant – which many see as a competitor to Overwatch – also distributed its beta access via twitch drops at the time.

Why is Blizzard doing this? The benefit of this approach should be obvious. If you want beta access to Overwatch 2, you must consume Overwatch 2 content on Twitch. This in turn ensures that Overwatch 2 climbs further up the Twitch rankings and draws even more players to the attention of the shooter, who may then also become interested in the beta.

That is a relatively large amount of attention for a comparatively small amount of effort. At the same time, it is of course a nice thing to be able to secure guaranteed beta access.

What platforms is the beta on? For the time being only on the PC. Later there will also be beta tests on the consoles, but this is not planned for the time being. So if you want to test Overwatch 2 in a timely manner, you should get used to the PC version.

What’s new in Overwatch 2? With Overwatch 2, Blizzard is making some pretty drastic gameplay and format changes. The team sizes will be reduced from 6 players to 5 players, which made many professional tanks scream when the announcement was made. So the role of each player in the team becomes even more important than before.

Many heroes also get fundamental revisions, sometimes change their roles or get adapted skills.

Will you be watching the streams to get into the Overwatch 2 beta? Or do you prefer to wait for the finished game?

In general, Blizzard already has more plans for Twitch and also distributes bonuses in other games.