Overwatch 2 breaks 35 million players in launch month

Overwatch 2 broke 35 million players during the first month since launch, an earnings report has revealed.

Overwatch 2’s launch month went exceedingly well for player count, with the game cresting 35 million players in the first month, according to Activision Blizzard.

According to the company’s financial earnings report, published on Monday, Overwatch 2 reached the milestone following the launch of its “free-to-play” model. While the report doesn’t state how many of the players were new or returning, the report does mention “many” of the players “were new to Overwatch.”

“The expanded community is engaging deeply, with average daily player numbers for the first month of Overwatch 2 more than double that of its acclaimed predecessor. Player investment is also off to a strong start, positioning the title to be a meaningful contributor to Blizzard’s business in the fourth quarter,” the report stated.

To compare, Overwatch 1 attracted approximately 15 million players in the first three months of its lifespan — and as a reminder, Overwatch 1 was a paid title, requiring players to shell out some initial cash in order to play.

Many heroes have been temporarily disabled since the launch of Overwatch 2, with the most recent being Mei, due to game-breaking bugs. Picture: Blizzard

“Blizzard is looking forward to delivering an ambitious slate of regular seasonal updates for Overwatch 2 that introduce new characters, maps and modes, including the game’s much-anticipated PvE mode planned for 2023,” the statement concludes.

The PvE mode mentioned was initially slated for launch, but was delayed to next year. The newest announced hero, Ramattra, will be released next month on December 6. Ramattra will be a tank character, but other than that, not much is known about their abilities or gameplay.

While Overwatch 2 has been massively successful, it has not escaped criticism over the game’s new monetisation features — a low currency payout makes it so that you can technically earn costumes in-game faster by playing a completely different game.

In other Activision Blizzard news, the composer for Call of Duty quit publicly via Twitter over a “challenging working dynamic” with the company. Dragonflight, the newest expansion for World of Warcraft, launches later this month — we spoke with the WoW team to talk about UX, accessibility, and class balance, and in a different interview, we discussed the new Race and Class combo: the Dracthyr Evoker.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.