xQc claims Overwatch League was viewbotted to “hide” the real viewership

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Popular streamer Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel alleges that the Overwatch League artificially boosted its viewer counts using viewbots, and this played a role in his choice to stop playing professionally.

xQc was watching an old video from 2019 where Mark Cuban claimed the Overwatch League once had 300,000 viewers at the same time. But xQc disagreed, suggesting those numbers were inflated and the actual viewership was probably around 14,000.

xQc said the viewer numbers were clearly faked. He found it ridiculous that they had been trying to conceal the inflated numbers for years.

xQc claims OWL numbers were inflated

xQc explained that during early testing for Major League Gaming, a source had given him varying numbers, which he’d previously mentioned.

He explained that they did a trial run using MLG for the preseason Overwatch League broadcast. A confidential source told him the actual viewership numbers, and he was shocked by how low they were.

xQc did not provide evidence for the claim and did not name the source he referenced.

xQc shared that he’d been planning to leave competitive Overwatch after discovering that their reported 300,000 Twitch viewers were actually only around 14,000 genuine viewers. He seemed shocked by this discovery.

— xQc Daily (@xQc_dailyy) April 30, 2026

As a gamer who used to play Overwatch professionally, I’ve been thinking a lot about my future in the league, especially how hard it is to juggle streaming and still compete at the top level. What happened recently really made me re-evaluate things and how I see my path forward.

I’d already committed to playing professionally in the Overwatch League, so when I heard that news, I immediately started planning my departure. I was thinking about how to transition from being seen as a streamer who earns around $10,000 to one who earns around $14,000.”

He explained that rules in his Overwatch League contract prevented him from streaming during official games, and this played a role in his choices.

He questioned why he would need time off to practice when he could do it at the office, along with scrimmages and matches. He explained that he wasn’t even allowed to stream during live events, so taking time off meant losing income without any benefit. He summarized it as simply being about getting a fair return for his time and effort.

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2026-05-01 16:48