Overwatch 2 Season 15 has sparked a notable shift in player sentiment, marking a positive turn for a game that once bore the title of the worst user-reviewed game on Steam. Now, nearly nine years after the original Overwatch debuted in 2016, and two-and-a-half years since Overwatch 2's launch, the sequel's journey has been tumultuous. In August 2023, Overwatch 2 hit rock bottom with its user reviews on Steam, primarily due to backlash against its monetization strategies. This was after Blizzard controversially updated the premium original to a free-to-play sequel in 2022, making the first game unplayable.
The game faced further scrutiny with the cancellation of the much-anticipated PvE Hero mode, a feature that many believed justified the sequel's existence. Despite these challenges, Overwatch 2's user review rating on Steam has recently improved from 'mostly negative' to 'mixed,' with 43% of the 5,325 reviews in the last 30 days being positive. This shift is significant, given the game's history of overwhelming negativity since its Steam launch.
The launch of Season 15 has been pivotal in this turnaround, introducing substantial changes to the game's core mechanics, including new hero perks and the reintroduction of loot boxes. The roadmap promises further content, but it's these core gameplay shifts that have resonated most with players.
Overwatch 2 Season 15 Screenshots
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Positive reviews highlight the impact of these changes. One user remarked, "They just released Overwatch 2. The recent update is what the game should always have been before corporate greed got in the way." Another praised the game, saying, "For once, I must come to Overwatch's defense and say they really have stepped up their game. Going back to what worked in Overwatch 1 while introducing new and fun mechanics to the game. A certain game made them LOCK IN and I couldn't be happier. Now we just gotta wait for next season with an actual cooler battlepass."
This positive feedback often references the success of Marvel Rivals, a competitive multiplayer hero shooter from NetEase that has garnered 40 million downloads since its December launch. In a recent GamesRadar interview, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller acknowledged the competitive landscape, noting, "We're obviously in a new competitive landscape that I think, for Overwatch, we've never really been in before, to this extent where there's another game that's so similar to the one that we've created."
Keller described the situation as "exciting" and praised Marvel Rivals for taking Overwatch's established ideas in "a different direction." He admitted that Marvel Rivals' success has prompted a shift in Blizzard's approach to Overwatch 2, stating, "this is no longer about playing it safe."
While it's premature to declare Overwatch 2 "back," the fluctuating Steam reviews suggest it will be challenging to surpass the 'mixed' rating. Nonetheless, Season 15 has boosted player numbers on Steam, with peak concurrent players nearly doubling to 60,000. It's important to note that Overwatch 2 is also available on Battle.net, PlayStation, and Xbox, where player numbers are not publicly disclosed.
For comparison, Marvel Rivals, which recently released a mid-season update, reached a peak of 305,816 concurrent players on Steam in the last 24 hours.
