The future of Overwatch 2 was mapped out for all to see with a Spotlight event from Blizzard earlier this week, and it seems that fans are responding well to the roadmap ahead for the hero shooter. Whilst the new Overwatch Season 1 is set to start on February 10, players are returning to the game early in anticipation for the update, and it’s pushing the Steam player count up to new post-launch highs.
Earlier today on February 8, two entire days before the Overwatch overhaul, we saw Overwatch 2 hit a peak of 69,800 concurrent Steam players – that’s the highest it’s ever been after the initial Steam release of Overwatch 2 back in August 2023. That also puts its 24 hour peak above other significant shooter titles like Call of Duty, which is a particularly good point of comparison as both titles have divided audiences on PC between Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher and Xbox store, along with the Steam version.
The upcoming Season 1 of Overwatch will be adding five new heroes, but the first is already available to play early, which is likely part of why we’re seeing players coming back. The refresh will also begin a new narrative arc titled The Reign of Talon, that will bring back much-needed depth to Overwatch lore through new comics, in-game events, map changes, animated trailers and more. It comes as Marvel Rivals dominates the hero shooter space, a crown once worn by Overwatch itself. It’s a significant update, and we’re very intrigued to see how the new and improved Overwatch is received by long-time fans, returning players and newcomers alike.
We’ll be sure to report on everything Overwatch following the launch of its Season 1 on February 10, so be sure to check back to GameObserver often for more breaking gaming news written by humans and for humans.
