Agree wholeheartedly on the viewing experience. I'm curious as to how the largely unenjoyable viewing experience for an average gamer has to do with OW's dying popularity. I know Twitch isn't the best canary in a coal mine for the popularity of a game but it definitely is one of many signs. OW has had lower viewership than like Rainbow Six and Dead by Daylight and other games who haven't put a billion $$ in funding behind their pro scenes for better part of a year now. Getting absolutely blown out of the water by Fortnite/Valorant/COD/Apex Legends and other games you would consider in their competitive space.

I consider myself to be a pretty heavy gamer, played OW casually in the past but mainly Apex now. I used to go to Blizzard Studios in Burbank to watch OWL with my wife as she was a huge fan (funk pops and all that) and holy shit, even being a causal player of OW, trying to understand what is going on at all times and trying to glean any semblance of "exciting plays" or "clutch moments" from the pro gameplay is virtually impossible. The gameplay is essentially an unintelligible explosion of colors, sounds, and strategies that brings you to the brink of a seizure before ending for indiscernible reasons because it's impossible for the camera to view the important elements of the match at once.

This is in comparison to the popular competitors currently beating them in Twitch viewership above. I watched competitive Apex before playing it and it just made sense. Teams of 3, battle royale, they have different powers, now go survive. Done, easy. Same with COD, Valorant falls inline more with CS:GO which is equally understandable. All of which are proving to have more staying power than OW.