Overwatch's Steam player count surged 63% over the past month, hitting a 24-hour peak of 69,881 players on February 7. The free-to-play shooter now surpasses major competitors Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Battlefield 6 on Valve's platform.
The player spike follows Blizzard's announcement of Reign of Talon, a major overhaul launching February 10. The update removes the "2" from Overwatch's title and introduces five new heroes, including the long-teased Jetpack Cat support character.
Blizzard plans to add five more characters throughout 2026.
Steam represents a secondary platform for Overwatch, with most PC players using Blizzard's Battle.net client. The surge is more significant considering Battlefield 6, 2025's best-selling game, primarily operates on Steam for PC players.
Overwatch's Steam history remains troubled despite the player increase. The game launched on Valve's platform to overwhelmingly negative reviews in 2023, becoming Steam's lowest-rated title at the time. It currently maintains a "Mostly Negative" rating, though recent reviews show "Mixed" sentiment.
The Reign of Talon update marks Overwatch's largest transformation since its 2016 debut. Blizzard, now operating separately within Microsoft's gaming structure under Johanna Faries, aims to revitalize the aging franchise with year-long narrative content and gameplay changes.
Player counts jumped from January's average of 37,000 to nearly 70,000 ahead of the February 10 launch, according to SteamDB data.
The surge demonstrates renewed interest as Blizzard attempts to move past controversies surrounding canceled PvE content and technical issues that plagued Overwatch 2's initial release.
