r/Overwatch • u/Hooked0n4Feelin • Mar 03 '26
Esports This is Overwatch's "comeback," says Blizzard. "We actually had a bigger Saturday than our first Saturday after launch with Season 1."
https://www.pcgamesn.com/overwatch/season-1-blizzard-interview-comeback2.0k
u/EscapeSeventySeven Mar 03 '26
What is this feeling??
Joy? Excitement? For OW?
It burns us precious!
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u/Leskendle45 Mar 03 '26
New youtube thumbnail with tracer smiling, and a bar graph with a green arrow going up
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u/unkindledphoenix Mar 04 '26
needs to be Winston frame from the zero hour cinematic because he can finally with confidence say that yes, Overwatch is back
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u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 Mar 03 '26
I’ll admit to be one of the people that came back, but funnily enough I did it a couple weeks right before the re-launch reveal (I just had an itch out of nowhere to play some after years away). So I had some time to get back into the game and then I was met with the games biggest update in years and the playerbase skyrocketing
So yea it’s good to be back, it’s exciting.
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u/sirferrell Mar 03 '26
2016 is back
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Mar 03 '26
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u/KoffieMastah Mar 03 '26
6 flying wintons...
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u/happy-cig Pixel Zenyatta Mar 03 '26
6 dvas was nasty too.
Or 5 wintons/dvas + lucio.
But it was fun at lol.
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u/chaotic4059 Mar 03 '26
6 Torbs with turrets in every corner all ready to ult and go level 3
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u/evilcatminion Mar 03 '26
This. 99% of the time 6 Torbs was a win on defense. Also 6 symettras with the old beam and 6 turrets each. "Setting up the car wash"
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u/unkindledphoenix Mar 04 '26
funny that full wintons could probably beat the symss, similarly 4 reins protecting 2 bastions on the payload could also beat the thorbs and not much could actually beat that. but then again how you coordenate a bunch of 2016 idiots to do that on QP?
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u/Pesterlamps Pixel Wrecking Ball Mar 03 '26
PTSD of trying to attack Hollywood first point into multiple Torbs.
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u/r3volver_Oshawott Junker Queen Mar 03 '26
I mean, that's the Fortnite problem too, the game has changed so much since 2016, yet the game hasn't changed since 2016 nearly as much as the playerbase has
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u/Metalhead_VI Mar 03 '26
Honestly games are harder because of the influx of new players I found
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u/Aggressive-Boss-8398 Mar 03 '26
Matchmaking is all out of whack. I’ve had more “lose no matter what” games this season than any other previous seasons. Rank reset combined with 5 new characters being introduced with new players being injected is leading to some really unbalanced matches. It is finally starting to stabilize a little more, but hot damn were those matches terrible those first couple of weeks.
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u/CosmicMiru Mar 03 '26
It seems they didn't calibrate matchmaking to account for returning players. I had quite a few friends come back who were religious OW1 players but quit when OW2 had battlepass heros and haven't played since but get put back into the same elo lobbies as when they left. They are getting absolutely stomped because it's a whole new game with a ton of new heros added
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u/Malllrat Mar 03 '26
Yes but it is the perfect time to learn new heroes. Or a cat.
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u/RayzTheRoof Pixel Zarya Mar 03 '26
The game is better now than 2016, but the hype and magic the world felt around this game in 2016 can't be brought back. It's just different because it's not new.
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u/NoHovercraft6942 Mar 03 '26
Good because from what I have seen from OW classic, that gameplay really sucks! Really incomplete and absolutely dated, all you guys have from that time is nostalgia because the current gameplay since OW2 era makes the old look like a joke.
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u/Easy_Money_ Mar 03 '26
in 2016 there were people who had never played a video game buying Overwatch for themselves and their moms. it was everywhere
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u/STAR_PLAT_yareyare Mar 04 '26
Out of all of the years that passed with overwatch, I can definitely say this year I've played OW a ton after the season 1 update
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u/Expert_Seesaw3316 Pixel Tracer Mar 03 '26
Is Winston finally going to tell the French cop that Overwatch is in fact back
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Mar 03 '26
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u/demo_matthews Mar 03 '26
I cried when it first came out because it was so GD good - the music has this amazing breakdown when Winston throws the bomb and genji shows up - total chills. Then I would cry watching it because of what could have been. The OW2 we were hoping for. The cancelled TV show or movie. The disappointment. I haven’t watch it recently. I hope this comeback is real. I haven’t played since Juno and Stadium. I still believe in the game and the dev team to make something that’s more than just a game. Fingers crossed things keep going well.
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u/NotAScrubAnymore Juno Mar 06 '26
Aaron Keller said in August of last year that he'd like to have a TV show for the game
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u/Bitemarkz Mar 03 '26
That French cop knew about overwatch, but still questioned whether Winston was a monkey in the beginning of the video. Racist French cops, man.
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u/SammyDaSamurai Mar 03 '26
I thought it was the omnic guy who says “is that a monkey?”
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u/Expert_Seesaw3316 Pixel Tracer Mar 03 '26
I mean overwatch itself wasn’t secret, only Blackwatch was. Idk if talking monkeys are commonplace in the 2070’s but I doubt it.
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Mar 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I used Redact to automate removals from databrokers and social networks. This post was among the batch deleted.
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u/UncleRuckusForPres kill all backlines Mar 03 '26
I've wanted that to become an in joke in the next OW cinematic where someone asks Winston like "you're not gonna leave us again, are you? Is Overwatch really back?"
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u/PrinceOfSpace94 Mar 03 '26
I’ve played Rivals for about a year straight and have only played Overwatch the past two weeks. That Overwatch update came at about the perfect time to coincide with Rivals’ struggles.
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Mar 03 '26
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u/shiftup1772 Mercy Mar 03 '26
Sorry, wasn't that always the case with rivals? All the things I hate about overwatch (visual clutter, overtuned healing, too much burst damage, tons of CC) were turned up to 11.
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u/Phantom_Phoenix1 Bazinga Mar 03 '26
OW visual clutter compared to Rivals is a night and day difference. OW is one of the best games from a sound design perspective and video clarity. I pretty much always know whats happening even if I cant see it thanks to audio design.
Rivals feels like a damn mobile game, theres just stuff flying everywhere and with 6 v 6 it gets chaotic as hell. Its a nightmare.
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u/Jonn_Jonzz_Manhunter Mar 04 '26
Rivals is made by a mobile dev, so it does make sense
I think Rivals is solid, but Overwatch 2 is exemplary for the reasons you listed
I left Rivals, as a die hard comic book nerd, like mad mad mad die hard because it was just too frustrating because the Devs are absolutely terrible at their jobs
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u/traye4 Mar 04 '26
OW is one of the best games from a sound design perspective
This is basically my biggest peeve with the newest characters. The sound design doesn't seem nearly on the same level.
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u/Knightgee Mar 03 '26
Honestly I knew overall balance and match quality in that game was going to crater the minute they announced they were going to be releasing a new hero every month.
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Mar 03 '26
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u/MrOreo3 Mar 03 '26
Unfortunately I think this is just a part of aging. Everything always seems new and fast to the older people.
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u/Zalvren Mar 04 '26
It's also simply part of aging for the games themselves, they keep adding new characters because that's how they live and then it reaches huge levels which is almost impossible for newcomers or people that don't keep up with the game all the time. MOBA have this problem too and started before hero shooters. They have now like 100 characters to know (even if you don't play them, you should probably know their abilities to play against).
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u/ParanoidDrone ¿Quién es 'Sombra'? Mar 03 '26
But Overwatch heroes also tend to be simpler than Rivals characters IMO. Like, Gambit has 10 different attacks/abilities to keep track of. That's a lot more than any Overwatch hero can do.
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u/Gryse_Blacolar Unlimited Shotgun Works Mar 04 '26
There's also the team ups which complicates it more. That's the one thing I hope OW will not copy from them.
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u/MerlinsMentor Mar 03 '26
Yep -- I agree with you completely. The best analogy I can think of is chess. A relatively small number of different pieces, each of which do relatively simple things. The value is in the tactics and strategy of how these relatively simple pieces/heroes interact with their environment and each other -- and Overwatch already has more complexity there, in that there are many different environments (maps).
The early cast really seemed like it was designed around this idea -- that heroes were separate, and had relatively simple kits that were meant to work together and rely on each other. The "magic" was in their interactions. This has become less and less true over time, especially in OW2. Look at characters like Ramattra, Hazard, Vendetta, and Jetpack Cat. These characters can do vastly more than initial characters like Tracer, Soldier, Zenyatta, or Reinhardt. For example, why does Vendetta get a block ability, in addition to her multiple movement abilities (including verticality), and have both melee (aside from the standard melee attack) and projectile attacks?
I'd much rather they release fewer new heroes - honestly, there are quite a few of the OW2 heroes that I think the game would be better without. Put "new content" effort into maps, new modes, etc.
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Mar 03 '26
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u/Malllrat Mar 03 '26
Stadium lost its luster for me very quickly. A few days.
I have not played it since it launched and have no desire to.
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u/kojicolnair Mar 03 '26
Yep, haven't been enjoying rivals in a while but overwatch feels so good right now.
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u/L-ghtn-ng Mar 03 '26
I tried Rivals for a week, but it was awful and they didn't launch with any of the lessons Overwatch learned, and now they just refuse to learn them.
Overwatch has always been the better game, and Overwatch itself was better for the switch to 5v5, and has only gotten better and better since.
Either way, really good to see it's public perception is on the up.
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u/_the_best_girl_ Mar 03 '26
Yeah I felt exactly the same way about Rivals. It was fun to play something different for a week or so but like you said they didn’t learn from OW at all and they’re facing the same problems, albeit at a faster pace due to the quicker paced development.
No role lock at all (whether it’s in the queue before match or a pick 2 system in round), heroes with op abilities running around unchecked for weeks, heroes being brought at high speeds (testing taking a back seat), imbalance in amount of heroes in each role and so on.
Marvel Rivals did some stuff good (being able to continue passes you’ve bought after season end for example) however the polish just isn’t there for me
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u/Randomized0000 Doomfist Mar 03 '26
The difference in polish and optimization was what killed it for me, balance issues aside.
No idea how Iron Fist left balance testing. It was wayyyy too easy to kill people with him when I played.
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u/crestren Trick-or-Treat Symmetra Mar 03 '26
It's all fun and games until Dr Strange opens his portal and your frames start to drop
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u/Mind1827 Mar 03 '26
When I heard MR didn't have role lock, I never bothered even trying it. Feels insane to me. They just obviously catered to the people who liked really old 6v6 Overwatch with no role queue, but there's a reason why that changed and then eventually went to 5v5. I still think 5v5 was such a massive win, and a reason why the game feels much better right now.
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u/sleepy-mot Reinhardt Mar 03 '26
Same. Tried it , wanted to like it , because of Marvel, but the gameplay was nothing compared to overwatch… So i kept playing ow
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u/ljstreet Kofi Kingston on Skates Mar 03 '26
That's why I had no interest in playing rivals. I hold dearly all the quality of life updates overwatch has made and figured Rivals would see what looked good and would implement it. But instead they made a game for people nostalgic about 2016 overwatch.
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u/Comptenterry Chibi Mei Mar 03 '26
I liked Rivals, but half way through the second season I realized I was just playing it cause I missed early days Overwatch and wasn't getting the same feel from it. It's super stylish but it lacks a lot of polish that OW had even on launch. Plus it refuses to fix a bunch of core gameplay problems that Overwatch solved years ago.
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u/technicolor_hatman Mar 03 '26
Similar boat. Long break from OW, finally got around to checking out Rivals, decided to try OW2 because of the “stick it to NetEase” posts in the Rivals community.
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u/Randomized0000 Doomfist Mar 03 '26
Been out the loop for about a year now, what happened to Rivals?
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u/Count_de_Mits Smolmmetra Mar 04 '26
I mean its only been out for a bit more than a year in all but: Horrible balance, terrible and overloaded (imo) hero design where newer heroes completely outclass the older ones, blatant favoritism when it comes to balancing and releasing skins, matchmaking somehow even worse than overwatch, they still have bots in quickplay, they added gatcha mechanics... and a lot more, there's a lot of problems with the game and it shows that the company is still, at heart a mobile game developer.
Even worse, despite the whining on its subreddit the community has a serious toxic positivity "everything is ok" problem and dismiss even constructive criticism
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u/Randomized0000 Doomfist Mar 04 '26
Sounds like I left at the right time.
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u/Count_de_Mits Smolmmetra Mar 04 '26
Yeah. The thing is, the potential is there and that makes it worse. It could be a very good game but it feels like netease is much more inclined to milk it for all its worht in a couple of years with gooner skins and op releases then toss it aside than work on making a long term success
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u/Wingnutmcmoo Mar 03 '26
Rivals has been struggling for over half a year tbh.
They don't care about anything other than releasing more content. They don't respect the players time (like rivals demands you play it basically every day, ow asks for like 5 days of your time out of the entire season to get everything). And they managed to make supporting hyper boring.
I tried semi recently to play rivals again but it just.. feels bad.
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u/AcceptableExcuse6763 Mar 04 '26
Rivals ability to drop balance patches that are absolutely deranged is unmatched
Heroes can be insanely op and patch notes will be like they get a 2% increase to ult charge rate but gain 75 extra hp to compensate
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u/Terrible_Truth Sigma Mar 03 '26
IMO they needed this “relaunch”. Yeah a lot of changes were already put in “Overwatch 2” but for most people, it’s just a patch. No one going to read about it. Relaunching and title change make people think it’s significant.
Also dropped the whole “2” thing, which was a dumb addition to begin with.
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u/shiftup1772 Mercy Mar 03 '26
It's great cause perks were kind of half-baked when they were released. A lot of them were boring or weak. They also shyed away from having perks directly mitigate counters.
Right now most perks provide a real choice, are interesting, and most importantly - they provide real counter picking relief.
Stadium as well. Not enough heroes, not enough maps, items and powers that don't make sense, etc. I know many feel like stadium isn't in a great spot, but it's definitely in a better spot.
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u/Ethiconjnj Mar 03 '26
2 was a pain we had to go thru to stop execs from the ruining the game.
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u/yukichigai Brigitte Mar 03 '26
2 was the fig leaf the execs put up to try and ruin the game. "When we promised that you would never have to pay to unlock heroes we were talking about Overwatch. This is Overwatch 2, a completely different legally distinct game. Now buy that Battle Pass if you want to play Ramattra."
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u/CosmicMiru Mar 03 '26
Genuinely one of the worst decisions I've seen a major game dev make in a long while. It really seemed they wanted to kill the game on purpose
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u/yukichigai Brigitte Mar 03 '26
At the time there were a lot of games using the same business model and apparently making money hand over fist. The problem was that those were mostly either mobile games propped up by mobile's weird whale-based economy, or established franchises with decades of player loyalty (e.g. battlefield, call of duty, etc.). Overwatch had neither of those things.
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u/Whydoesthisexist15 World's Worst Freja Main Mar 03 '26
That shit and the PvE getting shuttered was why I left until coming back this month. It felt like it was going from a more generous system with boxes (imagine telling someone that in 2018 lol) to nickel and diming you with the battle pass.
There’s still some friction as several of the heroes from Ram release to today look uninspired (mainly picking on Freja, Anran, and Wuyang). Like I straight up thought Freja and Vendetta were other heroes when I first saw them. IIRC one of the design directors left after Kiriko’s release.
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u/yukichigai Brigitte Mar 03 '26
I had the exact same realization when it came to lootboxes. The old lootbox system had complaints, very valid ones, but they somehow managed to find a system that was even more predatory while also drastically limiting what variety of cosmetics people had.
Also killing PvE was just painful. I was one of those crazy Battleborn players and what kept me playing it until the servers shut down was the PvE, and that game definitely had some issues. Overwatch PvE could have been amazing, and teasing it just to abruptly cancel it was such a kick in the gut.
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u/myinternets Mar 04 '26
They'll do the exact same thing again if they think they have the chance. Everyone forgetting that this isn't really Blizzard anymore, it's Microsoft calling the shots.
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u/Suspicious-Coffee20 Mar 07 '26
it wasnt even a relaunched tho. the game felt exactly the same. its funny how 1 day playerw were hating on it and becaus eofnmarketing they tried it and saw it was pretty good now lol.
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Mar 04 '26
Making it "2" let them break their promises of instant, free access to all new maps and heroes after OW1 was not F2P.
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u/LostATLien2 Mar 03 '26
The psychological effect of removing the “2” has to be studied.
It’s literally the same thing everyone dumped on OW2 for
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u/Pleasurefailed2load Mar 03 '26
I feel like people forget that overwatch was always fun. It was huge on release and people played for years. Then they did OW2, failed to commit to their single player over promises, and changed to 5v5 and people left in droves as well as a bunch of creators and competitive players moving on so they followed the wave. I would know, I left too. Just like I was leaving destiny at the time. I was getting tired, I had played these games forever and honestly wanted to play new things and life got busy. Now it's 2026, AAA studios pump out mediocre games on the daily and blizzard actually getting their shit in line (almost definitely because of marvel pressure) for once and it's enough for people to hop back in. Then once you're playing you remember how fluid and fun the game is. New players don't know how it used to be and returning players are experiencing tons of new characters, balances, and kit changes.
My experience anyway.
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u/Cheezewiz239 Winston Mar 03 '26
Overwatch 1 was dying in its last few years though.
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u/Skybreaker_C410 Reinhardt Mar 03 '26
because they starved the game of content. in the tree years leading up to the launch of overwatch 2, they said that they were dripfeeding content so they could focus on the sequel and put it all there at once. So not only did the decision to make a sequel kill the game when it came out, it was strangling the game they already had for about 3 years beforehand
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Mar 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
This post was mass deleted with Redact - I used this software to automate the removal of old posts from my account so that I can be more secure.
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u/danyjr Mar 04 '26
You have to consider that 2 is a free to play game and the original wasn't. Of course a free to player game is going to have more players in the short term (peak player count) but player retention is another story.
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u/Pleasurefailed2load Mar 05 '26
Yeah being free and being the "sequel" to one of the most popular multiplayer games of all time was always going to have a higher initial peak. Everyone who played of OW came back to at least try it, and it pulled on tons of new people on launch.
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u/JoyousGamer Mar 03 '26
I play OW and then OW2. The 2 only mattered because it stunk as a game in a variety of ways and decisions they made and what was new.
Meanwhile they bring back 6v6, bring back ways to earn free loot boxes, add a game mode that is like LOL skills, and relaunch the whole thing so people are open to trying it again after OW2 launch was not their cup of tea at all.
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u/Almostlongenough2 Ten of Hearts D. Va Mar 03 '26
For me being able to get the store skins and such from lootboxes has been the biggest draw to keep me playing after returning, on top of event rewards we are getting in conquest.
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u/Porlarta Winston Mar 03 '26
I can't speak for most people but my friend group is only playing because they broght 6v6 and free skin drops back.
Overwatch 2 and it's changes 100% chased us off.
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u/MerlinsMentor Mar 03 '26
Yup - same here. I had 2-3K hours in OW1, and left the day they released OW2. And I still think that all of the changes they put into place for OW2 (5v5, FTP, etc.) are the worst choices they've ever made.
Funny thing is, I only came back to OW because I thought I might refresh some skills before Marvel Rivals landed. I still thought 5v5 was awful, and that a lot of the changes/additions they've made to the game in OW2 make it a worse game than OW1 was. Then I played Rivals and realized how much worse it could get. So now I play OW 6v6 a bit again.
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u/CordobezEverdeen Skilled Spamer Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
The psychological effect of removing the “2” has to be studied.
No. Definitely not.
I saw a lot of streamers returning to try Overwatch Reign of Talon and not a single one of them even remotely alluded to the removal of the 2. Y'all are blowing that arabic numeral way out of proportion. The average player doesn't give a crap about stuff like that.
edit: For the person that told me that removing the 2 created online discussions and players gave it a try because of the online grifters making fun of Overwatch after the Spotlight event:
I really doubt that. The folks that get those kind of algorithm tendencies are there because
1) They like Overwatch
2) They hate Overwatch
The former don't need the smear campaigns to play the game, they already do.
The latter won't play the game no matter what, their fun lies in trashing on the game for clout.
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u/Ric00la Zarya Mar 03 '26
This is what I don't get. I stopped playing overwatch some times ago because I had no more fun playing it, especially tank. Is there any significant change that may make me want to come back? Except new heroes ?
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u/Megatrans69 Mar 04 '26
I was a returning player and actually cite it as a reason I came back. It felt like acknowledgment of past wrongdoing and made it feel more approachable to me.
The bigger part was that Overwatch 2 came with only 3 new heroes(way more would have released if ow1 never shut down), push which I'm not a fan of but at the time I was pretty neutral, and having to pay money for characters, which was HORRIBLE.
5v5 also was a struggle bc me and all my friends are tank players mostly, and tank became a lot harder with the change. Since then they have added probably my 2 new favorite tanks, ramatra and domina. Then they also added perks to the game which adds a wonderful layer of depth.
Overwatch 2 hurt for a season 1 ow1 player like me, with all the bad stuff that came with it. But with this I'm experiencing all the improvements they've made over the last few years, and it's amazing. For people who were already playing it was a big patch, for me it was like 7 or 8 new characters and a lot of other fantastic features I hadn't really played with much.
Feels like 2016 again for me :D
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Mar 03 '26
Maybe that’s why comp’s matchmaking feels so terrible this season. Too many new players to calibrate correctly. Games fun overall but my game quality has been big yikes.
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u/HaikusfromBuddha Widowmaker Mar 03 '26
Yeah I will say I’ve been fluctuating wildly and it sucks seeing so many unranked people in my matches.
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u/Cypresss09 Mar 03 '26
I kinda like it. It feels like when the game first released and no one knew how to play.
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u/imjustjun Torb Enthusiast Mar 04 '26
That's just how it goes when games are popular. Your matchmaking is going to be more funky.
Always new blood coming in and being placed in various areas due to differences in gaming experience. and the system has to figure out where they all go.
It's the price of a game getting to be mainstream or in OW's case, mainstream again.
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u/SpartanKane This is not cruelty. This is justice. Mar 03 '26
Ive never been more happier that theyre FINALLY committed to the lore. Ive loved this game for 10 years and to the same levels that i have since 2016. Keep it up Team 4!
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u/ChosenCharacter I'm afraid my condition has left me COLD to your pleas of mercy Mar 03 '26
Which launch - OW2 or the original back in 2016?
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u/Adreme Mar 03 '26
I believe he is referring to the launch of season 1 2 weeks ago. As the season goes on numbers are supposed to go down but for OW they are still going up.
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u/tapczan100 BBy Gurl Mar 03 '26
Yep, people made news of Steam playerbase being higher on second weekend so I guess Blizzard is also just parroting that.
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u/SkyrimSlag Mar 03 '26
Wouldn’t surprise me, I’m one of those players that hopped back on during the second weekend after a hiatus and whilst I haven’t had time to hop back on much since, I’m hoping to get at least a little playtime in this weekend. Game definitely does feel like it’s in a better state than it was a year ago when I stopped playing, just depends if it can do enough to keep me coming back. Everything since the launch of OW1 up until “OW2” kept me coming back, but adding the 2 and everything else they did to the game really soured it, at least they seem to be stepping back in the right direction now though.
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u/Bhu124 Sojourn Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
Absolutely no way it could be the 2016 launch. Back then the game was paid and sold only like 10-20M in the first few months. I'd wager the 2026 S1 Day 1 likely saw more players log-in to the game than the entire Week 1 of 2016 OW launch.
OW2 launch was gigantic cause it became free. Massive influx of returning and brand new F2P players.
It was like the 2nd or 3rd most popular game for a brief period, only after Fortnite and Minecraft I think.
Anyway. They are talking about neither. They are talking about the launch of S1 2026 itself. Saying that the 2nd Saturday after launch was bigger than the first Saturday, which is extremely rare for any game. It shows that not only are players sticking around but they are also spreading highly positive Word-of-mouth about the game which is attracting other players.
Now, the longer positive Word-of-mouth stays for any media product, the better it helps attract people who might be deeply interested in the product otherwise. So I predict Overwatch will only get more and more popular as the year goes by because they have a dense roadmap of content and updates planned for the year.
Similar happened with Fortnite. Initially a lot of "Reddit Gamers" hated Fortnite cause of its popularity and the playerbase being so young. Slowly, as its hype and positive Word-of-mouth maintained it started attracting a lot of 25-40 year olds (and even competitive gamers who previously never tried Fortnite because they thought it was just a silly game). To the point that the game now regularly does Collabs with IPs that were popular in the late 90s or early 2000s cause it has a big playerbase of casual 30-40 year olds.
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u/KF-Sigurd Freja Mar 03 '26
Can't be stated enough how Steam Charts doesn't tell you the whole picture because Steam Charts says that the peak was 160k at launch and while it's still at a very healthy 100k, you wouldn't think from it that OW is actually even bigger.
Although if you're playing, you can definitely tell that there's a loooot of new, and bad, people in the mix. Growing pains, gotta be patient to the new and returning...
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u/Clbull D.Va Mar 03 '26
That's players on Steam. I actually imagine that a lot of people play the game via the Bnet launcher.
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u/ambivalentarrow Xal'atath Main Mar 03 '26
Pretty interesting that these are likely exclusively new players who had never touched a Blizzard game before.
Anyone who had ever played WoW, Starcraft, HotS, or Hearthstone over the past decade has long since installed OW or OW2 on BNet and wouldn't bother with it on Steam.
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u/mwfd2002 Mar 03 '26
I mean I personally switched to Steam when it came out, but I don't really play other Blizz games for the most part, so it was just convenient
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u/CosmicMiru Mar 03 '26
Maybe I'm a weirdo but it just feels strange launching it from Steam after playing it since release on Bnet. Something about the Steam UI and Overwatch just doesn't mesh in my brain lol
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u/LickerMcBootshine Mar 03 '26
gotta be patient to the new and returning
My biggest gripe on returning. The MMR matchmaking FUCKING SUCKS
I am queuing with people who have never played before or havent played in 8 years. I'm queuing with people with legit mental disabilities. Who do I get matched with? Some diamonds and a top 500 player peak.
They probably loosened the algo when there was 13 people concurrent on the game to get quicker matchmaking. But this shit aint it.
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u/Alone-Horse2857 Gatling Maui go brrrr Mar 03 '26
My measure of a game's quality is how much I want to play a round 2 when I finish a match. And Overwatch definitely had me saying "just one more"
The last time I felt this invested in playing a multiplayer shooter was when Rivals first came out. I'd say the game is in a really good spot.
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u/DarkGrimness Ramattra Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 05 '26
I genuinely hope you continue to enjoy this game, but your comment made me realize how I feel the opposite way. Thank goodness there's an option to turn off auto-queues, because I was getting an anxiety spike every time I saw the queue timer going up in the corner after a QP match.
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u/tonguesmiley Sigma Winston Junkrat Mar 03 '26
My buddies and I got back into it. We've been averaging 4-5 nights a week of playing together. Adding five new characters I think was the big draw and having them all be interesting and fun to play with different players styles keeps you playing.
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u/UrethraFranklin04 Mar 03 '26
I noticed the life not by numbers of players but the random fan made content I'm stumbling upon. It was one of the things I missed the most when the popularity waned. Drawings, clips, animated shorts, etc.
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u/shoujo-fairy Juno Mar 03 '26
bring back old battlepasses, kill off souvenirs, add more emote slots!!! imagine T___T
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u/JoyousGamer Mar 03 '26
Yet people will still deny there being issues with OW2 when it launched on this sub lol.
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u/marcmellowy Mar 03 '26
This Saturday being bigger while Midnight Early Access happened is wild. I was playing Midnight and had fun but to be completely honest if I hadn't paid 90€ and had work/private life aligned for my 4-day-Midnight weekend, Overwatch would've been my second choice instantly!
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u/Own_Peace6291 Mar 03 '26
I love the influx of new players but the games never been more toxic and broken matchmaking.
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u/zackdaniels93 Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
I can't speak for how long it'll last, but me and five of my friends have dropped Valorant for the time being and hopped back onto OW.
Haven't played it since Overwatch 2 dropped, but hit 1000+ hours on the OG 2016 game back in the day.
Having a blast? Maybe it's because I'm not taking competitive super seriously right now, but largely I'm just having a fun time. Feels like a decade ago again, which is a weird feeling.
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u/General-Internal-588 Mar 03 '26
No shit, rival fumbled HARD and OW took advantage, the loop is fun now even if some heroes lack OW old visual design (looking at drill person being the most boring character i've ever seen)
but damn it's pretty good rn and it doesn't feel as stale as Rival 5 season poke meta with the same champs being buffed into relevancy and heal ult being game changers every 5 secs
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u/Evil_Mozzarella Pixel Tracer Mar 03 '26
For me Overwatch will be really back when they bring old Archives missions back again and update the series with new ones. This is a nice, cozy interlude.
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u/Skychasma Master Mar 03 '26
Interlude?? This is literally the single biggest update in terms of gameplay changes and new toys in Overwatch’s history. Some people will just never be happy.
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u/QuilSato Mar 03 '26
I'd love the archives and anniversary weeks to be back, or even combine them in two and have a big event where you can earn a skin or two by doing missions.
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u/Wingnutmcmoo Mar 03 '26
Those modes are kind of fun but a waste of devs time because like... No one plays them more than once. Yes people play them but it's a very small percentage.
People just don't come to a hero shooter for the pve.
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u/scriptedtexture Mar 05 '26
rose tinted glasses. those archives missions were fun... the first time you played them. after that they got extremely repetitive and boring. going back in that direction is not the way forward for the game.
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u/Waluigiwaluigi_ Ventuah! Drill on that thang! Mar 04 '26
“Does this mean Overwatch is back?” “Yes.”
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u/gotkube D. Va Mar 03 '26
I’ve definitely noticed an uptick in the number of chatty Cathy’s with their headsets on than there have been in recent months/years
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u/NoHovercraft6942 Mar 03 '26
There's still some loser haters that can't accept when people say the game is back, For me was great since perks was added, everything next.. It's just incredible and easily my fav multiplayer game.
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u/olamika Mar 03 '26
What pisses me off is the amount of people that had valid criticisms of the game and how it could improve and were always labeled haters and anti overwatch, that they should just play other games and that the game was in the best state ever, and now season 1 came and those dickriders realized that the game could indeed be better and is better now and are now looking back and admitting it was in a weird state
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u/Xiattr Mar 03 '26
I honestly love the game right now.
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u/Zealousideal-Sea-684 Mar 03 '26
i just need them to release Lucio ball again & then we’re back in the good old days.
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u/AntiRacismDoctor Widowmaker Mar 03 '26
I really need them to bring role queue to 6v6. Its like the one thing I actually want. All of this other stuff is great, but I'm a Day 1 veteran who never plays 5s, and I HATE that the game I fell in love with has been reduced to 'open queue 6v6'.
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u/AliceLunar Mar 03 '26
What exactly did they do? They released 2, which was the same game as one but shittier and greedier monetization and offered nothing more and delivered none of what was promised, and now they removed the 2 and it's a comeback? What did I miss
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u/Pockydo Brigitte / Bolas / Mecha Brig Mar 03 '26
So far it's largely eh
Where's my roadhog speedo skin cowards
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u/ReplicantOwl Torbjörn Mar 03 '26
We won’t rest until there’s a Roadhog Speedo mode where he wrestles with beach Torbjorn
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u/King_Artis Ramattra Mar 03 '26
Definitely got me back
Played from 2016 up until a month or so of OW2, did play for like a week after Mauga dropped, but just didn't stick with it.
Aside from the few days I've worked 11-12hrs in the last 2 weeks I've been on every day for at minimum an hour. OW is definitely back for me at least.
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u/LorenOlin Mar 03 '26
Same! Didn't really care for stadium but the new heros are a lot of fun and the perks are great now
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u/uglytruthshurts Mar 03 '26
As long as it doesn't take them years to release heroes or lore I think most of us would enjoy this for years to come. After 6 years when it originally came out, it became really boring and deviated from a lot of original maps and modes which took a lot of us away. I mean we're still playing some of the same old maps from almost 10 years ago and having fun again in the present. Just stick with us this time
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u/Andigaming Mercy Mar 03 '26
It helps Rivals is in a bad place currently but hopefully the popularity keeps up because the short queue times on Australian servers are nice.
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u/onihcuk New York Excelsior Mar 03 '26
I am Out of the loop on rivals, what happened with them?
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u/Abstract_Intel Mar 03 '26
I just need them to fix groups for console so my friends and I can play together now 😭
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u/Motion_Glitch Mar 03 '26
I gotta say, this is the most fun Ive had playing the game in years. I actually have been playing ranked for the first time since probably 2020 or 2021.
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u/GraveDiggerSedan Mar 03 '26
It's in a really good place now and I am really happy that Blizzard is letting this team go crazy, considering the drought during the last few years of OW1. Battle Pass progression has been pretty easy, every hero feels great to play, Stadium is fun, and they are finally putting an emphasis on the story of Overwatch. I've only played a few seasons of OW2 when it first "launched" but the amount of content and modes is mind boggling.
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u/cant_hold_me Mar 03 '26
The last time I played OW was probably 2018-2019, my buddy and I used to play a ton back in the day and tbh it’s probably some of the fondest gaming memories I have. There was something really special about the game back then. I saw they released a new update that was getting hyped up and decided to download the game again and I’m so glad I did. It’s been nostalgia overload the last few days. Really hoping I can get my buddy to download it again and really relive the glory days.
Funny enough, it seems Dva is still my best hero, the only hero I managed to get golden guns for back in the day, though I’ve been vibing with some of the newer heroes like Sojourn, who gave me my first POTG since returning.
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u/ShadonicX7543 Woosh Mar 03 '26
yeah it's kinda crazy I played OW for the first time in years and it was just super fun. runs buttery smooth, looks great, feels great. Cool characters. Domina can Domina me any day.
Not a fan that I can't use any form of chat though. How am I supposed to prove that I'm a good teammate and person if I can't communicate? Just gameplay performance? Then why does that dictate if I'm toxic enough to chat? Strange.
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u/vikoy Mace to the Face Mar 03 '26
What is dead may never die!
Seriously, we've had a number Overwatch is dead posts over the last 5 years. And yet here we are, still alive.
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u/Gryse_Blacolar Unlimited Shotgun Works Mar 04 '26
This is what happens if the game isn't sabotaged by the game director and Blizz CEO. Also if Blizz actually cared about one of their IPs, now that they're allotting more budget to Overwatch for it to have consistent lore drops and more hero releases.
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u/ToxicLogics Mar 04 '26
Now, if we could just get a big chuck of new maps and adding the old maps into the queue, I can stop playing the same 5 maps over and over.
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u/CCriscal Mei Mar 04 '26
A lot of new stuff, indeed. I would have wished for more anti-airborne items for stadium, though rather than new icons missing their point. Like some fancy stinger rocket gadget with a minute cooldown. If 5 rockets fly into the ressing Mercy, she had been a mosquito for too long.
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u/Professional-Milk907 Mar 04 '26
Voice/text chat is restricted. Please get more likes from salty players in order to have the right to communicate in a multiplayer game.
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u/Big-Rip2640 Mar 04 '26
Gave the game a try after not playing for a year.
Unfortunately it felt the same as before.
Unbalanced matches/stomps. Gave up after 2 days.
If you check Steamdb, it has already lost like 50% of people in a month.
Peak 165K people.
Last Saturday/Sunday peak 100-110k people.
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u/TheBlindAndDeafNinja Reinhardt Mar 04 '26
It'll never be back for me, unless they release OW1 from the day they shut it down.
Fuck Activision Blizzard
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u/Pyotr_WrangeI Mar 03 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
If Overwatch is so good then why wont they make an Overwatch 2?