Overwatch 2’s Steam player numbers have spiked after its Spotlight Event, showing signs of renewed growth for Blizzard’s hero-shooter. Read on to learn more about this restructuring and why the player base has grown since its 2023 launch.
Overwatch 2 Shows Signs of Growth After Spotlight Event
Hitting Its Highest Player Peak in Years
Overwatch 2’s player peak has surged significantly, reaching almost 70,000 players on Steam alone, according to SteamDB’s metrics. Following Overwatch 2’s latest Spotlight Event, a recent spike in player numbers suggests that more players are returning to the hero-shooter as they look forward to the game’s upcoming content.
Its sudden increase in player numbers has also sparked conversations about how Overwatch 2 is slowly overtaking first-person shooter giants like Call of Duty and Battlefield 6 on Steam. According to SteamDB, it is still far from matching the overall concurrent player counts of both titles. However, Blizzard’s hero shooter has already surpassed Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s 66,000 peak in the past 24 hours, edging ahead with Overwatch 2’s 69,000. As for Battlefield 6, Overwatch 2 now needs just 3,000 more players to overtake DICE’s military shooter.
It remains unclear how representative these numbers are across other platforms, particularly on Blizzard’s own Battle.net, but Overwatch 2’s growth on Steam, a global launcher with over 40 million users, already sends positive signals for the team.
Since Overwatch’s major rebranding in 2023 with the addition of "2" to its title, the game has received polarizing reactions from players, largely due to the cancellation of highly anticipated content such as PvE modes and a stronger narrative focus.
While the game has since stabilized following a series of content drops, including a MOBA-like Stadium game mode, new heroes, and rebalanced gameplay, Overwatch 2 has yet to reach the highs of the original 2016 release.
Blizzard Updates Overwatch with Rebrand, No Overwatch 3 in the Works
Following the February 4 Spotlight Event for Overwatch 2, Blizzard’s team, led by game director Aaron Keller, held a press conference outlining their plans for the hero shooter’s future, including the reasoning behind removing the "2" from its title.
According to Eurogamer, who was present at the event, the Overwatch developers noted that "the ‘2’ in the name was tainted." It was clear that the transition to Overwatch 2 had a significant impact on the community, largely due to major changes such as the shift from 6v6 to 5v5 and the ultimately failed attempt to introduce a PvE mode.
The rebranding even sparked a wave of memes across the wider gaming community, calling out its "2" while adding nothing substantial to the core gameplay loop of Overwatch.
In the report, Blizzard stated that renaming Overwatch 2 is "not an admission of any previous errors or guilt." However, Keller reassured fans that the version of Overwatch players have today is meant to be "the forever game," explaining that the decision to drop the "2" was made because the team does not want players worrying about when it might be replaced by Overwatch 3.
As for the possibility of an Overwatch 3 coming, Keller stopped short of ruling it out entirely, saying that "never is a big word," and emphasized that the team intends to continue supporting the current game for the foreseeable future. As for the previously promised PvE mode, Keller noted that it is "not something we’re focusing on right now."
Overwatch’s ultimate revival event goes live on February 10, 2026, kicking off Season 1 with a major seasonal refresh. The first content drop launches with five new heroes: Jetpack Cat (Support), Emre (DPS), Mizuki (DPS), Domina (Tank), and the DPS hero Anran, who was previously teased during Wuyang’s reveal.
Source:
Eurogamer Interview with Game Director, Aaron Keller, and Other Overwatch Devs
Overwatch Spotlight: The Reign of Talons Begins
SteamDB Metrics for Overwatch 2
