The Overwatch League season may be nearing its halfway point, but viewers will be given increased incentive to catch the rest of the year’s games. Overwatch League tokens, which are used to buy league skins within the game, will be enabled for the rest of the year on the league’s website, mobile site, and app.
Viewers have been unable to earn tokens by watching Overwatch League games this season thanks to the league’s move from Twitch to YouTube. While YouTube does enable drops, the league was previously working on ways to enable time-based token acquisition on the platform. This may still be in the works in the future, but for now, the Overwatch League’s viewing options are the only way to earn tokens.
Beginning May 22 with the league’s May Melee tournament, viewers will be able to earn five tokens per hour of view time on the Overwatch League’s website, mobile site, or app. This is a marked increase from rates on Twitch in 2019.
Viewers must have a Blizzard account linked to the Overwatch League website before they can earn tokens. Tokens can be earned for each hour of livestream viewership during games in any region, including Asia Pacific games. Views on previously-aired games won’t count toward the viewership total, however.
Hours of viewership don’t have to be total or concurrent. For example, a viewer could watch 45 minutes of an early game, take an extended break, and come back to finish their “hour” to earn tokens. Due to the recently increased rate, a viewer could technically earn an entire team skin by watching every game aired in a single weekend.
Overwatch League tokens can be used to purchase team skins within the game. Each skin costs 100 tokens and includes both the home and away color schemes for a hero. These tokens can be used on all Overwatch platforms, including PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 4.
