Viewers who tuned into Overwatch on Twitch to receive their promised access to the Overwatch 2 beta, have been left frustrated as that access has failed to materialize.
The Overwatch 2 beta Twitch Drop promotion seems to have been a resounding success. The game peaked at a staggering 1.5 million concurrent viewers on Twitch last night, as players tried to get in four hours of Twitch viewing to gain access to the beta.
However, the program doesn’t seem to have worked for everyone. A tweet by the Overwatch account celebrating the viewership achievement is plagued by users who say they've claimed their Overwatch 2 beta code on Twitch, but haven’t had it appear on their Battle.net account.
Some have reportedly been waiting hours to be let in, despite claiming the reward in their Twitch Drops inventory. In response, Blizzard community manager Andy Belford tweeted that the process can take time. He said:
What a day! A few updates for everyone1. Drops don't redeem immediately. There's going to be a bit of delay in between you claiming, and seeing the Tech Beta client in your launcher2. We're working on increasing server capacity now, sorry for anyone dropping from game!April 27, 2022
Later, he clarified that for those who are only just linking their Blizzard accounts to their Twitch accounts, there will be a sizeable delay:
Important drops info: please make sure that your Blizzard acct is connected to Twitch within at least an hour after claiming (assuming you didn't double check this morning), otherwise you may have significant delays in receiving accessApril 27, 2022
Going further, the Overwatch Twitter account has said that the vast majority of issues are coming from players who have incorrectly linked their Battle.net and Twitch accounts. It tweeted:
We have finished investigating reports for players who have claimed their Beta drop but not yet received access to the Beta:Many of these players have not yet actually linked their https://t.co/qPyOohSJt6 account to their Twitch account and must do that first (1/2)April 28, 2022
It seems that you can retroactively link your accounts, so, if you are having problems, it's worth going through and making sure everything is set up properly. For instructions, here is a support post about the process.
However, several players are claiming they still don’t have access, even after following all the proper steps. It’s unclear if this is down to user error or something else, but it appears this issue hasn’t gone away entirely.
There is still another chance
If for whatever reason the Twitch Drop system didn’t work for you last night, or you couldn’t make it to the streams at the allotted times, there is still hope. Another way of gaining beta access is incoming.
Last night, it was announced the Overwatch League will be offering some viewers beta access for tuning in. The league kicks off on May 5 and will run through the weekend until May 8. Every hour, 1500 players will be granted beta access
In order to be eligible for the drops, you need to head over to the Overwatch League website, and link your YouTube and Blizzard accounts. You can head over to your ‘Connected Apps’ Youtube page to see if your Battle.net is connected. Then all you have to do is watch games during the weekend.
While it’s never fun to be left out of something, especially if you've met all the stated requirements, it’s clear Blizzard wants people in the beta and is offering players as many ways as possible to get in. Here’s hoping the issue is resolved, one way or another.
