Successful or otherwise, it seems that confidence in Activision-Blizzard's Overwatch League is in short supply these days. The organization is popular enough, but that hasn't saved it from having to deal with its own fair share of controversies like the fairly restrictive alleged league code of conduct that leaked a couple of months ago. The league's problems have been in the face of its followers for awhile, and now it seems that its viability as an esports organization is starting to come into question.

At the tail-end of the Big 12 conference, some time was taken to address the question of whether or not eSports should be considered as actual sports or just entertainment. Among those sitting on the panel was billionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks among other accolades. Eventually, the discussion turned towards Fortnite and its impact on other esports like Overwatch.

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As seen in the clip above, Cuban doesn't appear to be all that confident in Overwatch and Overwatch League by extension. He has good reason to be skeptical too, viewership for professional Overwatch appears to be in decline. According to The Esports Observer, Twitch viewership for week one of stage four is nearly the lowest the league has had thus far. This is still the league's first season and yet its viewership is steadily trending downward.

Overwatch is itself still a popular shooter, so one has to wonder what exactly could be hampering its viability as an eSport. The Overwatch League has seen plenty of controversy since its launch. Several players have received disciplinary action for various violations over the past few months, but again this isn't uncommon in other esports organizations. So the issue must be something else.

It could be that Fortnite's still-rising popularity and record-breaking tournament fund is attracting teams and players away from Overwatch League. As popular players leave for Fortnite and other games, they might just be taking their fans with them. It's unlikely that this is the sole cause of Overwatch League's apparent decline, but it wouldn't be very surprising if it turned out to be a major contributing factor. Whatever the root cause may be, Activision-Blizzard will have a tough time keeping the league going if potential team owners aren't confident in it as a viable investment.

Overwatch is currently available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Sources: Reddit, The Esports Observer