8 February 2026

Overwatch’s Player Count is Way Up on Steam Ahead of Next Season

By newsgame

With major changes on the horizon, Overwatch‘s PC player base on Steam has seemingly exploded and reached an impressive new milestone. Attempting to capitalize on the success of the original Overwatch, Blizzard’s sequel has experienced plenty of highs and lows, continuing to evolve through the months and years. While the fabled PvE mode that was originally highlighted during BlizzCon 2019 has long since been canceled, Overwatch 2 is about to undergo its biggest transformation yet.

As the Overwatch franchise approaches its 10th anniversary, Blizzard had big news to share with fans during a spotlight showcase. At the conclusion of Season 20, a new era is set to begin as the “2” from the title is being dropped when Overwatch kicks off the Reign of Talon story arc. In addition to 5 new characters joining the game, Blizzard will be adding 5 more over the course of 2026 alongside the first annual storyline along with other major changes and overhauls. Either way, it seems like the announcement resonated with many current and lapsed players, as the free-to-play title has rocketed up the Steam charts once again.

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It’s Official: Overwatch Is Killing One Of Its Core Game Modes In Reign of Talon Season 1

The soft relaunch of Overwatch starting with Reign of Talon Season 1 sees the removal of a controversial core game mode from map rotation.

Overwatch Steam Player Count Reaches Impressive New Milestone

Although Overwatch 2 struggled with technical issues and other issues fans were frustrated by, Blizzard continued to pump out new content, heroes, and updates over time to try and sway players back into the fold. With new additions like Overwatch 2‘s Stadium mode being positively received, Blizzard is set to kick off the biggest change the game has seen in nearly 3 years and so far, players appear to be coming back in droves in anticipation of the February 10 update.

The Reign of Talon announcement has seen a major surge in players logging back in. While Overwatch is likely played more widely on Battle.net, considering it’s Blizzard own game launcher, the Steam version has seen a huge boost in players, helping it surge ahead of major multiplayer titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6. According to Steam.db, Overwatch 2 saw a 63% gain of players over the past 30 days alone, hitting a 24-hour peak of 69,881 on Saturday, February 7. It’s an impressive feat considering that just in January, the game was fluctuating around 37,000 players.

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Even with an influx of new players, Overwatch continues its precarious relationship with Steam. After launching on Steam, users review-bombed the game so fast that it quickly became Steam’s lowest rated game of all time. At the time, fans were upset over PvE missions being behind a paywall, the campaign missions being outright canceled, technical issues, and more. While the game has transformed itself over the years, the overall user rating has risen slightly but continues to sit at “Mostly Negative.” It’ll be interesting to see if this changes once Reign of Talon’s major overhauls arrive in a couple of days.

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While Reign of Terror might not be the story missions original fans were hoping for, Blizzard is seemingly placing a much larger focus on the narrative with this “relaunch.” Fans will have a lot to look forward to, including the return of post-match hero cards, multiple sub-rolls within the familiar Tank, Support, and Damage classes, as well as a new meta event that allows players to join Overwatch or Talon and earn weekly rewards based on their faction’s standing. The 5 new Overwatch heroes of Mizuki, Emre, Domina, Anran, and the fan favorite, Jetpack Cat. There’s a lot to dig into for this new era of Overwatch, and Blizzard is hoping this will be the spark to push the franchise back into the spotlight fully.