Overwatch 2 Breaks Its All-Time Concurrent Player Record On Steam

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of change for Overwatch fans – but this time, everything seemed pretty positive. After three years with the “2” in the title symbolizing a sequel era, Blizzard has officially decided to leave the numbering behind and launch a brand-new season.

This new era officially kicked off yesterday, February 10, with the debut of Season 1: Conquest. The update arrived with a massive amount of fresh content, including new in-game events, animated shorts, and a historical first for the franchise: the simultaneous release of five new heroes.

In less than 24 hours, it seems Blizzard is already reaping the rewards of this “soft reboot”. That’s because the game just experienced a massive surge in PC players, reaching heights never seen before since its arrival on Steam.

Breaking Records and Dropping Numbers

According to data from SteamDB, back when the game still carried the "2" in its title, concurrent player counts usually hovered between 20,000 and 50,000. While the numbers were relatively stable, the game struggled to break past that ceiling for quite some time.

However, that trend saw a drastic (and positive) shift on the day of the Conquest season premiere (also known as “yesterday”) as Overwatch recorded a historic peak of 165,651 concurrent players on Steam, setting a massive new record for the game on the platform.

For more context on this achievement, the game’s previous all-time high on Steam was around 75,000 during its initial launch on the storefront in August 2023, meaning that the current player count is more than double its original Steam debut (!!!).

Oh, and there’s more context. Before the new era, Overwatch’s peak of concurrent players was only 42,000 in January. Even as of this writing, the game is holding strong with over 112,000 players online, still outperforming its original launch day. You can check Overwatch’s current SteamDB stats right below by yourself:

It seems that dropping the “2” and having an ambitious relaunch was the health pack Overwatch needed after a rocky period of internal shifts at Blizzard and gameplay changes.

And player impressions for the new season are leaning positive, with the community's “Overwatch is back” sentiment echoing across social media! Now, the real test begins: seeing if Blizzard can maintain this massive momentum in the weeks to come.