Let’s ask a very serious question – is the Overwatch competitive scene dying? In recent years, fans have been debating whether or not Overwatch is experiencing a slow and drawn-out death. While this is a common enough trend for most competitive titles, it seems that there’s an ongoing debate as to the popularity and status of Overwatch in particular that has lasted for more than two years.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an avid player or the most casual fan, you may find yourself asking, is Overwatch dying? The League has been disbanded. Player numbers aren’t exactly setting the world on fire. Competitors like Valorant seem to out-do OW. It feels like Overwatch’s moment has passed. However, the game is still actively supported and does seem to have a dedicated player base.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll break down the state of play within the game and determine once and for all if Overwatch is dying.
©Blizzard Entertainment
To answer the question, we’re examining a variety of aspects. From the esports scene to the social media following, we’re taking into consideration every angle possible to determine if Overwatch is dying. There may be a large number of people still playing Overwatch, but are they even enjoying it? What do the prospects look like for the future of Overwatch 2?
It’s a tough thing to ask, ‘is Overwatch dying’, but it’s slightly easier to ask, ‘is Overwatch still popular?’ There’s less to tackle, and with this question, we’re mostly looking at sheer facts and figures, rather than the opinions of the community as a whole. OW 2 dropping player counts have been confirmed by the developer.
According to ActivePlayer.io, Overwatch (across all platforms) enjoys an average count of around 1 million players per day. The game’s launch as a free-to-play title enjoyed substantially higher numbers. However,t here are still a decent number of players jumping in every day or month.
In terms of Overwatch’s popularity on streaming platforms like Twitch, we’ve seen a consistent drop. Overwatch 2 had huge numbers on release, over 600,000 viewers. However, it now averages under 40,000 a day. This is a sustained loss of intrest on Twitch, but still an improvment over the later days of Overwatch 1 .
Is Overwatch dying? It certainly isn’t as popular as it once was. Although, it maintains a dedicated base of players
Let’s put it this way – almost every game has its lifecycle. Typically, a game will be developed, released, updated, and then it will slowly slide into the abyss. For some games, such as ‘live service’ titles, this lifecycle will be expanded by several years as more content is delivered to an ever-present, persistent platform. While this traditionally includes MMORPG titles, other great examples would be CSGO, League of Legends, or Dota 2. These games have all existed for many years.
For some games, a sequel will revitalise the franchise while the first game inevitably dies out. With Overwatch, it seems that the switch to a live service model hasn’t done too much to bring in new players regularly. When we say ‘die’, we’re referring to a few things, such as:
There are many areas to examine when trying to figure out if a game is truly dying. It may be that one area is falling thin while another remains strong and consistent. However, where Overwatch is concerned, almost every area on that list has taken a hit in the last year or two. There are some claims that Overwatch was dying as far back as 2017, just one year after the game was released.
If we look back at trending searches, people were asking, ‘is Overwatch dying’, months after the game launched. It’s a bizarre concept, but there always the fans that worry about the popularity of their favourite games. Overwatch 2’s new seasonal model ensures new content. However, it’s hard to get around its other problems showing a lack of intrest.
These days, most Overwatch news sources are discussing the game’s frequent major changes to its meta. The title is consistently trying to re-balane itself to be more friendly to newer players. Often to the furstration of long time fans.
So, that’s what we mean when we ask, ‘is Overwatch dying?’
Well, no.
According to the numbers we’ve revealed, Overwatch isn’t already dead. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to die at all. It is inevitable that Overwatch will one day plummet past the point of no return, but it isn’t there already.
If you venture online into circles such as Twitter and Reddit, you’ll see plenty of memes and discussions suggesting that Overwatch is a dead game. In some cases, it’s nothing more than a harmless trend – how can a game with millions of monthly players be considered dead? There are many titles out there with far fewer players that aren’t considered abandoned and broken.
Let’s look at it like this – Overwatch is still receiving regular updates, and there are constant attempts by Activision Blizzard to balance the game. There are regular new seasons which introduce fresh content to Overwatch 2. However, it largely doesn’t result in growth. It often seems like the average player count is just slowly returning to where it was for Overwatch 1.
The esports of the game have even bigger problems. The Overwatch League failed. With dropping viewer numbers and problems running int he convouted franchise system, Overwatch has ditched the League entirely.
It has been replaced with a new evvent format, the Overwatch Champion Series. However with events now part of DreamHack rather than standalones, its clear there’s less confidence in OW’s ability to draw a crowd.
But does the fact that a form of Overwatch esports is clinging on mean that the game itself isn’t dying?
© Robert Paul | Blizzard Entertainment
Overwatch has switched to a live service format. However, with a change in ownership and shudown of esports its clearly got some turmoil ahead. Here’s a breakdown of the biggest issues impacting Overwatch’s stability in 2024:
The Overwatch League was a fairly popular series for a while, but it had a slow death. Declining intrest, dropping out sponsors, and players moving on all made the final year of the League a bit of a low point. The new format for Overwatch esports is exciting, but it has some concerns for players too.
Switching to an open format will definetely mean a more entertaining pool of players and teams. However, the system is definetely shtunk fromt he Legue’s highs. The game will have considerably fewer high-level events. It seems the game’s current fanbase just isn’t big enough to warrant a larger esports presence.
Moving away fromt he League format with its familar teams could turn even more people off If this new format fails to improve engagment with competitive Overwatch, the game might ditch this side completely.
At its core, Overwatch is a relatively simple concept. It’s a hero-based first-person shooter, which is by no means an unfamiliar genre to gamers. For a while, many of the game’s fans insisted that it was built with too much of a focus on esports and competitive players, with little support being present for the more casual or less-skilled fan. Fortunately, as a result of its simplicity, Overwatch enjoys a large player base – and it always has. However, even this has led to issues, with extensive queues building and widespread issues impacting thousands of players.
As of 2024, in-game events are still regularly being held and new seasons come out. The scale of these updates has dropped though. New Heroes don’t arrive as frequently. Events seem smaller than the past too. It’s a substantial improvment over OW 1, but as live service games go OW is one of the duller ones.
An unavoidable factor in is Overwatch dying is the game isn’t popular. It even held the title for most hated game on Steam.
Review bombs aside, the changes to monetiationa nd gameplay have earnt the game a lot of hate. A lot of its regular players dislike where Blizzard is taking it. New plauyers are put off by its bad reputation. Overwatch has an image problem, and it’s one that might stop it from reaching its full potential.
Read also: Are Esports Dying?
As time goes on, we’ve issued updates to this page in keeping with the developments of Overwatch in general. With each passing year, it’s important to identify how the industry is reacting to changes within Overwatch and the Overwatch League. If you’re asking, ‘is Overwatch dying’, there’s no better indicator than reviewing past information and identifying trends.
In 2017, three of the biggest and most important Overwatch teams dropped their rosters. There was something of an ongoing trend concerning a lack of investment in Activision Blizzard’s competitive shooter. There was a hefty buy-in for organisations seeking to break into the Overwatch League, with a franchised position carrying with it a $20 million price tag.
In 2017, three teams pulled out of the OWL almost back-to-back, leaving a gaping hole in the Overwatch League’s structure. There were complaints that Activision Blizzard wasn’t paying enough attention to the competitive scene, neglecting players, teams, and fans alike. There were concerns raised regarding funding, tournament format, and an overall lack of interest.
However, moving out of 2017, some of these concerns were addressed by Activision Blizzard and effectively acted upon and put to bed.
In June of 2017, Ninjas in Pyjamas announced a departure from the Overwatch ecosystem. As an explanation, the organisation stated that its roster had potential, but the Overwatch scene as a whole had failed to evolve as expected. It was no longer sustainable for fresh investors and posed a concern for existing investors.
Shortly after NiP’s departure, Evil Geniuses also announced a withdrawal from Overwatch esports. Reportedly, this was the result of a mutual decision between the organisation and the players, with the latter wanting to simply part ways with Evil Geniuses. It was stressed by the org that this wasn’t a complete abandonment of Overwatch esports, but the team never returned.
Toward the end of 2017, Team LCDC gave up on the Overwatch League. They claimed that it was due to poor competitive performance, but in a statement, LCDC directly referred to Activision Blizzard as the driving reason behind their departure. There were claims of mismanagement and poor funding.
When it first launched, Overwatch became a massively popular title in a remarkably short period of time. In fact, it became the fastest-selling game to reach 20 million players in Activision Blizzard’s history. It was a complete success story for the company, and for a while, Overwatch was coasting on total, unbridled victory.
There was something of a slowdown in terms of new users, but by May of 2018, Overwatch still counted more than 40 million active players. However, it was reported that Activision Blizzard was pumping up these numbers; artificially inflating the counts to make Overwatch seem more popular. They did this by including the numbers of unplayed, temporary, or free trial players in the total active player counts.
However, the fact still remained that Overwatch was greatly popular, and by extension, it boasted a popular esports scene. In 2019, the Overwatch League peaked, selling out the Barclays Centre during the regular season. For a time, Overwatch had drawn a bigger audience than some traditional sports events. If you’re wondering if Overwatch was dying in 2019, just take a look at these figures. This was the height of the Overwatch League, and it wouldn’t have pulled in the viewership that it did if it was dying.
In the first year that it was released, Activision Blizzard racked up more than $1 billion in revenue. Overwatch rapidly became known as one of the best-selling games for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and the Overwatch League reflected this value – at least in the earlier days of the competition.
Despite delays, Overwatch 2 is expected to launch in 2022. However, as far back as 2020, there were expectations that ‘a sequel’ could save Overwatch. Unfortunately, it would be months until anything even resembling a sequel would emerge, with beta testing taking place at the start of 2022.
As a sequel, Overwatch 2 will bring all-new content to the Overwatch ecosystem, despite not changing much in the bigger picture. Reportedly, with Overwatch 2, we’ll see a more ‘fleshed out’ PvE mode, hosted alongside the typical competitive offering. For some, the concept of Overwatch 2 is nothing more than an over-glorified story mode expansion or ‘DLC’. While it’s not a sign that Overwatch is dying, it isn’t a symbol of anything truly progressive.
There are some blockers that will prevent Overwatch 2 from being an instant boost to the Overwatch ecosystem in general. For instance, players will need to invest their hard-earned cash once again, parting ways with the full value of the game to simply play the game. This can be a blocker, especially considering how many of the most successful competitive titles tend to be free-to-play. For example, League of Legends, Dota 2, Fortnite, or Call of Duty: Warzone.
This news was first covered in 2020, and by 2022, fans are still awaiting the arrival of Overwatch 2.
Is Overwatch dying? It might be – but we need to understand the theories that explain why. At the start of 2019, Activision Blizzard laid off more than 800 members of staff. This was reportedly due to stagnating player bases across all of Blizzard’s franchises, such as Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and, you guessed it – Overwatch.
© Blizzard Entertainement
However, in the world of game development, it isn’t unusual for vast swatches of staff to come and go. For instance, if a new project surfaces, there will be a mass drive to hire as many people as needed. Then, when the project is completed, these staff will depart the company. It’s harsh, but it’s how the world operates.
There’s another theory driving the assumption that Overwatch is dying, and it’s related to the drop in the overall value of the game. Firstly, there’s the fact that sales dropped over time – this is a typical concern in the gaming industry. However, by a certain point, Overwatch sales became almost inexistent, with everyone who wanted to buy the game having already bought the game. Then, there was the abandonment of the Overwatch League by organisations and sponsors. Furthermore, there was a drop in the popularity of Overwatch in the content creation markets.
Ultimately, there are many theories hiding behind the claim that Overwatch is dying. There’s the list of scandals surrounding Activision Blizzard, the age of the game, the delays of Overwatch 2, and the fact that, under the surface, Overwatch is a niche title. It stands to reason that there isn’t a non-exhaustive collection of players bursting at the seams to enjoy Overwatch.
When Valorant launched in 2020, it was seen as a direct competitor to Overwatch. It was another overnight sensation, with player numbers flying up the charts with reckless abandon. Valorant immediately threatened Overwatch, standing as an attractive, new, and exciting alternative to Activision Blizzard’s hero shooter. It became massive on social media, dominating platforms like Twitch, and many Overwatch creators suddenly began switching over to Valorant.
Although Valorant seemed Overwatch-like on the surface, it also took inspiration from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. It was essentially a unification of the two, igniting fast-paced, first-person combat with hero characters. There was no doubt that Valorant would be a firm competitor for Overwatch, and over time, the latter lost the race. Within a year or two, Valorant’s numbers in terms of players and viewership began rising up and above those of Overwatch.
As professional players began leaving the platform, the Overwatch power rankings began changing dramatically.
Ultimately, adding Valorant into the ‘is Overwatch dying’ debate is key. It was certainly the driving force behind a mass exodus and contributed to the downfall of Overwatch – at least for a period of time. For the most part, the situation is blown out of proportion, with many high profile gamers stoking the fire and claiming that Overwatch is dying.
While it might be slowing down as time goes on, we don’t think it’s dying just yet.
What Can Blizzard Do to Stop Overwatch Esports From Dying?
Even if Overwatch isn’t dying, there are certainly a few things that Blizzard could do to ensure that they retain their player base and continue to attract new gamers. Obviously, Overwatch 2 needs to keep up the release of with new maps, new heroes and even seasonal events. It’s this which keeps the current fan base engaged.
Many Overwatch fans have stated that Blizzard would benefit from more community involvement in the game’s development. Although the likes of lead developer Jeff Kaplan did a great job in keep us all updating during the Overwatch Beta testing, these updates became scarcer and the resultant isolation that fans felt quickly turned to that ‘toxicity’ that everyone complains about.
Other things that could be improved include providing players with more in the way of statistics. Although it’s pretty easy to keep track of the movements of the opposite team, it would be great to have more information about the amount of healing received, and the same goes for DPS and tanking.
Overall, Blizzard Entertainment did a great job with Overwatch, and it’s easy to see why it smashed sales figures upon its release. But the fact that people have been asking if Overwatch is dying pretty much as soon as the game came out does pose big questions about the future of this first-person shooter.
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