The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of change for Overwatch fans – but this time, it all turned out for the better. After three years with a “2” in the title symbolizing a consecutive period, A blizzard has officially decided to leave the numbers behind and launch a brand new season.
This new season officially started yesterday, February 10, when the game started Season 1: Victory. The update came with a large amount of new content, including new in-game events, animated shorts, and a franchise first: the simultaneous release of five new heroes.
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In less than 24 hours, it seems that Blizzard is already reaping the rewards of this “soft reboot”. That’s because the game recently experienced a massive increase in PC players, reaching unprecedented heights since its arrival Steam.
Breaking Records and Dumping Numbers
According to data from SteamDB, back when the game still had a “2” in its title, the number of simultaneous players often hovered between 20,000 and 50,000. While the numbers have been stable, the game has struggled to break through that ceiling for a long time.
However, that trend saw a big (and positive) change on the day of Conquest’s season premiere (also known as “yesterday”) as Overwatch recorded an all-time high of 165,651 concurrent players on Steam, setting a new record for the largest game on the platform.
For more context on this achievement, the previous highest-grossing game on Steam was around 75,000 when it was first launched on the storefront in August 2023, which means that the number of current players is more than double its Steam debut (!!!).
Oh, and there’s more context. Before the new season, Overwatch’s peak number of concurrent players was only 42,000 in January. Even as of this writing, the game is still going strong with over 112,000 players online, still well past its first launch date. You can check Overwatch’s current SteamDB stats below for yourself:
It seems that ditching “2” and having an ambitious relaunch was the health pack Overwatch needed after a difficult period of internal changes at Blizzard and game changes.
Overwatch recorded an all-time high of 165,651 concurrent players on Steam, setting a new record for the game’s largest player base.
And the players’ opinions on the new season are interesting, as the “Overwatch is back” community sentiment is heard on social media! Now, the real test begins: to see if Blizzard can maintain this massive momentum in the coming weeks.
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