Overwatch 2 developer Blizzard Entertainment has announced that in the 10 days following the game’s launch, it has hit 25 million players. That’s an incredible number, and it signals that the revamped hero shooter is poised to succeed moving forward. Originally released on October 4, Overwatch 2 breathed new life into the first game with a move to a 5v5 PvP format, a new Battle Pass-based progression system, the introduction of a seasonal content model, three new heroes, and more.
This feat has been achieved despite Overwatch 2’s launch being extremely rocky, as players have experienced widespread bugs and launch issues ever since release day. Blizzard also said that the game’s servers were besieged by mass DDoS attacks, resulting in frequent problems that prevented people from logging into the game or playing matches without being disconnected.
Ultimately, the success of Overwatch 2 thus far suggests that the changes the sequel made to Overwatch were for the best. Previously, Overwatch struggled to remain relevant in the competitive shooter space beyond 2018-19, as many of its players lost interest when the game became too focused on crowd control stuns and beefy tanking abilities. Overwatch 2’s gameplay is much faster and more active by comparison.
In my review of Overwatch 2, I said that it “represents the arrival of the foundational changes Blizzard’s hero shooter needed in order to return to its former glory.” While it’s too early to say whether or not the game will actually retain all of the players currently checking it out — Halo Infinite had 20 million players a while after launch, and everyone knows how that turned out — Blizzard seems to be on the right track for now.
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