Overwatch 2 Season 15 has been a breath of fresh air for the game, significantly improving the sentiment around what was once dubbed the worst user-reviewed game on Steam. It's been nearly nine years since the original Overwatch debuted in 2016, and two-and-a-half years since the launch of Overwatch 2. In August 2023, Overwatch 2 hit rock bottom on Steam, becoming the platform's worst user-reviewed game ever, primarily due to backlash over its monetization model. Blizzard faced heavy criticism for converting the premium Overwatch into a free-to-play sequel, making the original game unplayable as of 2022.
The sequel faced further challenges, including the cancellation of its much-anticipated PvE Hero mode, which many players believed was the sole justification for the sequel's existence. Despite still holding a 'mostly negative' overall user review rating on Steam, recent reviews have shifted to 'mixed,' with 43% of the 5,325 reviews in the last 30 days being positive. This improvement, though modest, marks a significant milestone for Overwatch 2, which has been battling overwhelming negativity since its launch on Steam.
The turnaround can be attributed to the launch of Season 15, which introduced substantial changes to the game. While the roadmap promises typical new content, the core gameplay has undergone a major overhaul, including the introduction of hero perks and the return of loot boxes.
Overwatch 2 Season 15 Screenshots
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Positive reviews have started to emerge, with one player stating, "They just released Overwatch 2. The recent update is what the game should always have been before corporate greed got in the way." Another review praised the game's direction, 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 is partly due to the competitive pressure from Marvel Rivals, a similar hero shooter from NetEase that has garnered 40 million downloads since its December launch. In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller acknowledged the new competitive landscape, stating, "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 found the situation "exciting" and appreciated how Marvel Rivals took Overwatch's established ideas in a "different direction." He admitted that the success of Marvel Rivals has forced Blizzard to adopt a less cautious approach to Overwatch 2, saying, "this is no longer about playing it safe."
While it's premature to declare Overwatch 2's full recovery, the fluctuating Steam user reviews indicate that achieving a rating better than 'mixed' will be challenging. However, Season 15 has led to a notable increase in 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, achieved a peak of 305,816 concurrent players on Steam in the last 24 hours.
