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After a difficult launch week with frequent server issues and bloated player queues, Blizzard has announced that over 25 million Overwatch 2 players have signed up in the first 10 days. “Since launch, the game has nearly tripled the original Overwatch’s previous highest daily player count,” the announcement reads.
Usually that number isn’t all that surprising for a major free-to-play shooter launch, but the road to Overwatch 2 was anything but ordinary. Despite being branded like a completely new game, Overwatch 2 is pretty much just an extension of the original game. Blizzard has spent years trying to explain what the “2” actually means in Overwatch 2, causing confusion and frustration.
Skepticism about the necessity of Overwatch 2 deepened in the weeks leading up to its launch. That’s because Blizzard made detailed changes that original Overwatch players didn’t like, like locking new heroes behind his battle path, introducing expensive cosmetic packs, and requiring new accounts. Unlock old heroes over the course of 100 games.
With all the bad news and the internet’s general dislike of Activision, many called it a “dead game” before it even came out. It turns out that we are over the peak of the game. Free has come a long way, as we’ve seen with the return of other previously paid games such as Rocket League and Fall Guys.
I can’t speak for all 25 million people, but my friends and I were so excited about the major design changes that we were all nervous when we first heard about it. Maps, push modes, new heroes. Reviewer Tyler Colp is more critical so far, calling Overwatch 2 “a chaotic sequel that tries to wipe out one of the best shooters of the last decade.”