It’s one of the most common questions in all of esports: Is Overwatch dying?
WIN.gg has given some insight to this question a few times, despite Blizzard never having released official player counts. Instead, Overwatch fans could only go off of the number of people watching the game on Twitch, as well as how popular the Overwatch League was. Unfortunately, those two things seemed to indicate that Overwatch was endangered.
But Blizzard has just revealed that Overwatch isn’t a dead game. In fact, it seems to be thriving.
Blizzard reports 10 million active players per month in Overwatch
According to the Overwatch publisher’s third quarter report, the team-based first-person shooter has 10 million active players each month. For a game that’s already been around four and a half years, this is an impressive number. Activision Blizzard called the number of players a “large and dedicated community.”
Even the Overwatch League is not doing as bad as the esports community has believed. On the contrary, the October Grand Final was the “most-watched event” in the game’s history.
Overwatch continues to be popular thanks to its holiday-themed events, desirable skins, and the excitement over a sequel expected to drop within a few months. Overwatch 2 will add new game modes, new heroes, and new maps to Overwatch, allowing players to dig even deeper into the game’s expansive lore. Blizzard also revealed that Overwatch may be coming to mobile as well, although specific plans have not yet been revealed.
Stay spoopy, heroes.
From all of us on the Overwatch team, have an unBOOlievable Halloween.
🎨@monarchscomic pic.twitter.com/8nQpTn0rig
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) October 31, 2020
While Overwatch isn’t dying, it’s still not doing quite as well as its competition. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a much older game, has double the number of players. It’s reported that about 20 million players are active each month. League of Legends has 115 million monthly users, way more than Overwatch or most other competitive games. This may in part be due to a recent surge of players as users look for new hobbies this year, but it’s an impressive number regardless. It shows that while Overwatch is far from dead, it’s not quite at the top of the esports mountain either.
