Overwatch 2 amasses 35 million players in its first month
Heroes never die. All 35 million of 'em.
It's been just over a month since Overwatch 2 launched to the masses, and Activision-Blizzard's latest financial report has shown the game did damn well in those first four weeks.
We already knew that the hero shooter's sorta-sequel had amassed 25 million players in its first 10 days, already close to tripling the original's peak daily player count. As reported by Eurogamer, Activision-Blizzard's latest quarterly report revealed that the game managed to add another 10 million players on top of that count throughout the rest of October, "including many who were new to Overwatch." The report also said that "player investment is also off to a strong start," presumably talking about sales of the battle pass and cosmetics. Overwatch 2 appears to have managed to maintain its near-triple daily player count compared to its predecessor throughout the month, too.
The numbers are undoubtedly aided by the game's pivot to free-to-play. I do wonder how it'll pay off for future player retention but for now, it seems to be working in Blizzard's favour. It's also interesting to see the publisher say how "player investment" is strong. There have been numerous complaints around its egregious pricing of skins, with old skins costing almost $20 and new bundles requiring $26 worth of premium currency to snap up.
OVERWATCH 2 HITS 35 MILLION PLAYERS IN ITS FIRST MONTH OF RELEASE!According to Activision Blizzard financial Q3 report, over 35 Million players have played #Overwatch2 since its release. Many of these players were new to OverwatchThank you for the pretty image by @INGYUARTS???? pic.twitter.com/MUDeDAAbCNNovember 8, 2022
The report concluded by saying that Blizzard has "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." We already know one of those new characters, tank hero Ramattra. Relatively little is known about what else we can find in season 2 and beyond, though.
I've been playing my fair share of Overwatch 2 in the last month. While I'm still unsure how I feel about the new 5v5 format and playing support makes me want to tear my hair out more than it did in the original, it's still the only FPS I can reasonably gel with. Morgan Park has been having a blast with the game, even if Tyler Colp has been a little more reserved about it in his Overwatch 2 review. I'm also a little salty that Mei is currently frozen out of action, and she isn't the first hero to temporarily disappear from the game in its short lifespan.