Overwatch 2 launched on October 4, 2022, immediately replacing the hugely successful team shooter, Overwatch, which was shut down as soon as its sequel launched. Being free-to-play, Overwatch 2 has attracted a lot of players very quickly. In fact, if you’re playing during peak times, you may have to queue for a few minutes just to get in the game. This queuing can be annoying, but maybe when you realize just how many people are playing Overwatch 2 at any given moment, the slight delays become more understandable.
Related: How to unlock heroes as a new player in Overwatch 2
How many people are playing Overwatch 2?
According to Blizzard, 25 million people played Overwatch 2 within its first ten days of release. That’s across all platforms, namely Windows PC, Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation, and Nintendo Switch. Overwatch 2’s estimated average daily player count is between 900,000 and 1 million. And during any given hour, there are at least 100,000 people playing Overwatch 2, even at quiet times. At peak times, this number is much higher.
These average player count figures for Overwatch 2 are higher than those for the original Overwatch, but are in line with the steady growth the original game was seeing in the lead-up to Overwatch 2’s release. In its last two years, from October 2020 through to September 2022, Overwatch’s average player count grew steadily. Its average monthly players grew from just over 7 million to just over 9 million during that time, and its average daily players increased from just over 600,000 to just over 800,000.
Overwatch 2’s early numbers show a significant jump in popularity for the series, which is normal when a new game is launched. Overwatch 2 is looking very much like another big success for Blizzard Entertainment, a development studio that rarely puts a foot wrong, and whose other major hits include Diablo, StarCraft, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone.
Estimates sourced from Active Player.
