Overwatch 2 shows signs of life with Season 15
Marvel Rivals has largely overtaken Overwatch 2 in popularity, but for the first time since competition arrived, Overwatch 2 is seeing a rising player count.
Today, there has been an interesting shift between two rival hero shooter games. Marvel Rivals has largely taken the place of Overwatch 2 as the premiere hero shooter on the market, but there have been interesting developments in both games over the last twenty-four hours, that appears to have influenced the Steam player count. Of course, there could be many more factors at play here, and anything is likely to change in the coming days and weeks ahead.
Overwatch 2 Steam player count hits an upswing with the launch of Season 15
An important detail to keep in mind when considering these two games is that Steam numbers are the main method of comparison we have. Both games are free-to-play on Steam, but also presumably have large audiences across consoles, and in the case of Overwatch, Blizzard’s game launcher, Battle.net. So, this may not be the whole picture, but it can at least give a small snapshot of the larger image.
Yesterday, news broke of layoffs for a small NetEase team in Seattle that had helped support the larger Marvel Rivals team in China to launch the game last December. As the news developed, and before NetEase had a chance to respond last night, many players took to social media to express their disappointment that such a successful game would still lay off developers. Since release, Marvel Rivals has been at the top of Steam’s most played games and ranked similarly on consoles. On Steam the average player count over the last few months has often hovered between 3 and 4 hundred thousand. While the overall player count has been on a slow but steady decline, this doesn’t appear to have had any direct impact on the number of players.
Meanwhile, Season 15 of Overwatch 2 was released yesterday, which introduces one of the most notable changes in the game’s history. Players can now make use of a “perk” system that gives each hero flexibility within matches. Players can adapt to a game as it progresses, choosing to slightly change and improve their abilities on what the team needs. Also, loot boxes have returned. What a strange arc loot boxes have had. I remember a time years after the original Overwatch launched that they were seen as one of the worst things to add to a game. After a few years with battle passes I guess people have come back around. Either way, with all the excitement that these new changes bring, Overwatch 2’s Steam player count reached a 24-hour peak that the game hasn’t seen in nearly six months. Though, to be fair, it’s only just under 60 thousand players. So, it is still far lower than Marvel Rivals.
But given a recent interview where Overwatch 2’s game director talked about how the Marvel Rivals competition was “exciting” and put “pressure” on the team to improve the game, it might be showing signs of success. While we aren’t able to see the number of players outside of Steam, if there is a similar upswing in players across all platforms, it could be huge for the Overwatch 2 team.
On the other hand, a major mid-season update that brings two new characters and a new map to Marvel Rivals, is set to launch this Friday. Given that the game’s all-time peak on Steam was shortly after the launch of the first season, this could end up being a huge moment as well. Chances are the small minority of players that are aware of the controversial layoffs won’t have a huge impact on Marvel Rival’s player count, at least in the short term.
For months it has seemed that Marvel Rivals had completely overtaken Overwatch 2, so it is interesting to see signs of life from the old giant. Only time will tell if Overwatch 2 still has a chance of overtaking, or at least standing its ground against the new juggernaut that is Marvel Rivals. If the new perks and loot boxes land well with fans, it could bring some players back. If the expected changes for Season 16 this spring are also received well, it could be the first few steppingstones the game needs to find its way back to the top. At the very least, it’s exciting to watch how both games will handle the competition in the coming months.
Of course, this is not a defined trend or pattern yet. This is just me glancing at some interesting player counts on Steam and being aware of the larger context of those numbers. For many years Overwatch did not have a true competitor, so it is interesting to see how the game and its development team react to the first real competitor since its launch back in 2016. When I had the chance to play Marvel Rivals last summer, I wasn’t impressed. But I also haven’t played a game of Overwatch in the last year. At the moment, Overwatch 2’s introduction of fresh gameplay features is creating a more interesting argument for someone like me to return. We will have to see if that feeling becomes more common over the next few weeks, or if Overwatch continues to be overshadowed by Marvel Rivals.
