Overwatch 2 attracts 25M players in 10 days despite rough launch

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Overwatch 2 officially launched on October 4, shortly after Activision Blizzard shut down the servers for its predecessor. Now the publisher claims that 25 million people have played the new game since its launch, allegedly triple what the original game had in the same time frame.

Blizzard launched the new game on consoles and PC, with crossplay available at launch. The new title makes several changes from its predecessor, including going free-to-play, introducing a battle pass and switching from 6v6 gameplay to 5v5. It also has several new heroes not available in the original game.

Given that the original is no longer playable, it makes sense that a large portion of its players transferred to the new title. Overwatch 2 is also free-to-play, removing the barrier for entry present in the original game. It also launched on the Nintendo Switch, which Overwatch did not, adding yet more new blood to the player pool.

A large portion of those 25 million players have experienced the many problems Overwatch 2 has had since it launched. To date, the game has had two major DDOS attacks, unstable servers and character bugs (including one that let robot hero Bastion bomb the daylights out of its opponents). Players have also complained about the game’s competitive ranking system, matchmaking and hero balancing.

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