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‘Overwatch’ Is ‘Back’ As It Doubles Its Former Steam Playercount Record
Blizzard's rebranding and story-driven updates attracted over 165,000 concurrent players on Steam during Overwatch's Season 1 relaunch, marking a new peak for the game.
- On February 10, 2026, Blizzard's relaunch of Overwatch pushed Steam's peak to over 165,000 concurrent players last night.
- Earlier this month, Blizzard announced it was dropping the '2' and soft-rebooted Overwatch with the Reign Of Talon expansion, adding five new heroes and story drops.
- Data from streams shows large viewership spikes with over 111,000 viewers on Twitch while many players logged on to play longtime mains and reported queue waits for the first time since 2022 launch.
- Players who had left returned with renewed enthusiasm, but Steam's peak only shows part of activity since many use Battle.net and consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S yesterday.
- A Switch 2 version is scheduled later this year, and three more seasons are planned, but observers say Blizzard must manage hero balance and sustain weekly content to maintain renewed interest.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Overwatch Season 1 Launch Sees Blizzard's Relaunched Hero Shooter Double Its Steam Player Record
We already knew that Overwatch fans were returning in their thousands with the advent of its new name and "story-driven era," but Overwatch hasn't just matched its original Steam release-day fervor, it has smashed it, more than doubling the platform's concurrent peak set back in 2023.You'll remember that Blizzard's sequel unfortunately stumbled out of the gate, and while it saw a massive surge of players at the start, those numbers dropped in th…
Overwatch Breaks All-Time Steam Player Record After Season 1 Relaunch
Summary: Overwatch’s successful relaunch had its all-time Steam player count broken, now sitting at a peak of over 165,000 concurrent players. Overwatch rebranded from “Overwatch 2” back to “Overwatch” and revealed major changes to the game’s features, gameplay, and lore. Season 1 also adds five new heroes and the new Hero Sub-Passies feature that allows players to explore more with how they play. The very recent Overwatch relaunch had just don…
Overwatch: Explosive Results in Its First Season!
Blizzard‘s game, under its old-new name, has reached a notably large audience – but a strong start won’t be enough to guarantee long-term success. Last week, Blizzard Entertainment held its second presentation kicking off 2026, the Overwatch Spotlight, focusing on the game’s future and what players can expect over the coming year. Beyond the official name change – which means the game is once again called Overwatch – we also got a closer look …
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