David Farnor | On 02, Feb 2020

YouTube will be the exclusive streaming home for Activision Blizzard’s eSports tournaments as part of a new deal between the gaming giant and Google.

Behind the scenes, Google Cloud will serve as the preferred provider for Activision Blizzard’s game hosting infrastructure, supporting its millions of active users each month with AI, open source, low-latency tech. In front of the scenes, YouTube Gaming will be the worldwide streaming partner for eSports events and leagues, including Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, Hearthstone and more.

“We’ve worked closely with Activision Blizzard for the past few years across mobile titles to boost its analytics capabilities and overall player experience,” says Sunil Rayan, Head of Gaming, Google Cloud. “We are excited to now expand our relationship and help power one of the largest and most renowned game developers in the world.”

“We’re excited to partner with Google to drive the next generation of gaming innovation for the industry. Google Cloud’s best-in-class infrastructure gives us the confidence to deliver great entertainment to our fans around the world,” adds Jacques Erasmus, Chief Information Officer, Activision Blizzard.

YouTube has already begun hosting the official live broadcasts of Activision Blizzard’s eSports leagues and events. The inaugural Call of Duty League season kicked off on Friday 24th January, with 12 teams competing in Minnesota, while the Overwatch League 2020 season will begin on 8th February. All competitions will be livestreamed on each league’s YouTube channel and will include archived and other special content.

“With more than 200 million gamers a day watching more than 50 billion hours of gaming content per year, YouTube provides gamers and their passionate fans with the most popular video gaming platform in the world,” comments Ryan Wyatt, Head of Gaming, YouTube. “Both the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League are the quintessential examples of world class esports content. As a former Call of Duty esports commentator myself, I couldn’t be more excited for Activision Blizzard to choose YouTube as its exclusive home for the digital live streaming of both leagues. This partnership further demonstrates our dedication to having a world class live streaming product for gaming.”

“This is an exciting year for Activision Blizzard Esports as we head into the inaugural season of Call of Duty League and our first ever season of homestands for Overwatch League all around the world,” concludes Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports. “It’s our mission to deliver high-quality competitive entertainment that our fans can follow globally, live or on-demand, and to celebrate our players as the superstars that they are. This partnership will help us deliver on that promise at new levels, by combining our passionate communities of fans and players with YouTube’s powerful content platform and exciting history of supporting next-generation entertainment.”

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