Overwatch creeps past Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty's concurrent players on Steam, hitting its biggest peak in years

I've never met anyone with uncomplicated feelings toward Overwatch, especially if you count the years it spent sporting a number 2 on the end of its name, but it feels like the start of a new era for the decade-old hero shooter. The 2 is outta here, five new heroes are inbound, and the game is really fun right now. If you ask me, it's been fun since Stadium hit the scene, but I digress—people are flocking back to the game in droves.

As spotted by Windows Central, the charts on SteamDB have seen a big upward trend in the last week. As I write this on a Sunday afternoon, it's sitting at around 68,000 concurrent players, which is surprisingly close to its all-time peak of 75,608. Right now it's just above DayZ and Call of Duty, and there was a bit there on Feb. 8 where it was well above Battlefield 6.

While that might not sound super impressive considering that Marvel Rivals is well into the six figures range, it's worth noting that much of Overwatch's community began playing and continue to on the Battle.net launcher. Exactly what percentage of the playerbase is represented on Steam isn't clear, but as a vague indicator of the game's popularity taken with a grain of salt, it shows that something is bringing people back.

I mean, it's probably the cat. But there's also all the new passive abilities divvied up by hero role, the lootbox refresh, the other four new heroes, and so on. The new season bringing all that isn't even out yet, as it launches Feb. 10, but it beckons all the same.

I still mourn the possibilities that could have been unlocked by a proper PvE expansion to Overwatch, but it's probably for the best that the game focuses on what people actually play it for: Its heroes and multiplayer modes. Hero shooter fans are spoiled for choice between third-person MOBA shooter Deadlock, caped crusade-'em-up Marvel Rivals, and even a mod that aims to recapture the magic of early Team Fortress 2, so it's a great time to get back into whichever game tickles your fancy.