Overwatch 2 reaches 25 million player milestone

Image: Gamertimes

Blizzard is celebrating Overwatch 2's success for reaching an impressive number of players in only 10 days of its release.

Because of many issues in the early days, Blizzard is celebrating Overwatch 2 reaching a significant milestone. When the original Overwatch was released in 2016, it quickly became a massive cultural touchstone. It introduced a wide range of new fans to the first-person shooter genre, introduced FPS fans to MOBA-style hero shooters, and had a wide reach thanks to its diverse cast and fascinating world-building. Despite the fact that the decision to make Overwatch 2 a free-to-play game was controversial for many, players have expressed interest.

Blizzard announced via the PlayOverwatch Twitter account that over 25 million players have logged in to play Overwatch 2. Blizzard did not elaborate on how it arrived at that figure, but 25 million unique players must have played the game at some point during the first 10 days. It's commendable for the franchise to be able to pull off that incredible number despite the numerous challenges the game faced in its first week, which threatened to discourage its fan base.

Overwatch 2 began with two DDoS attacks, which exacerbated the game's widespread server queue issues. This became the game's most infamous issue in its early days, which Blizzard technicians eventually fixed, but it was only the tip of the spear in terms of problems the game has had. While things are much more stable now, some players are still experiencing account merge issues, a bug in which returning Overwatch 2 players were accidentally getting heroes locked behind the First Time User Experience, Xbox player achievement glitches, and other issues.

TWENTY FIVE. MILLION. PLAYERS. IN. TEN. DAYS. 🤯

Thank you to the 25 Million Players who have now jumped into #Overwatch2 with us 💙🧡 pic.twitter.com/2ESBr5Shmk

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) October 14, 2022

Throughout the process of getting the game to work properly, Blizzard issued numerous apologies, the most recent of which promised free items and multiple double XP weekends in Overwatch 2 in the near future. Blizzard has also been monitoring gameplay for any game balance issues throughout Season 1. Aside from the game-breaking Bastion and Torbjorn exploits that resulted in their removal, and a few things they're keeping an eye on with Zarya, Genji, Sombra, and D. Va, Game Director Aaron Keller stated that the development team is mostly satisfied with the game balance.

If you’d like to read more of our perspective on balance for Season 1 you can find it below. We’re planning more significant changes to Season 2.https://t.co/5XgG12UqQQ

— Aaron Keller (@aaronkellerOW) October 14, 2022

While there are many aspects of Overwatch 2 to praise, there are still many issues that have yet to be fixed or addressed. Some hero skins feel incomplete, such as Orisa's javelin skin, which lacks skin-related alternatives, or Ana's Corsair skin, which lacks her parrot. Fans have also complained about the prices of in-game items, with older items feeling unusually expensive, and some standalone Overwatch 2 skins cost significantly more than the bundle that includes them.

Overwatch 2 is now available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.