Overwatch renaissance in full effect as player count soars ahead of Season 1 launch

Overwatch is having its comeback moment. The player count is ballooning close to all-time peaks on the back of a huge rundown for 2026, including the release of five new heroes in the imminent Season 1 update.

Overwatch 2 has dropped the ‘2’ and gone back to its original title. With that – and a few other notable changes – players are coming back in droves.

Ahead of the mega-sized Season 1 update, packing in a UI overhaul, the first chapter in a new ongoing narrative arc, and five new heroes all at once, thousands are jumping back in to find their footing once again.

The hero shooter is thriving, closing in on its all-time peak concurrent player count on Steam before the major update even goes live.

Overwatch player count closing in on all-time peak ahead of Season 1

In the past 24 hours, at the time of writing, Overwatch has shot up the charts to a concurrent player count peak of 69,881 on Steam. Now, it’s been around the 60,000 player mark a few times over the years for big updates, but it’s never climbed quite like this.

Today, we’re seeing the biggest concurrent figure since Overwatch 2 launched to 75,608 players in August 2023.

The player count is showing no signs of slowing down, either, with the aforementioned Season 1 update set to go live imminently on February 10, 2026.

This marks a significant rebound for Blizzard’s hero shooter, especially considering where it was just over a year ago. When Marvel Rivals was soaking up the spotlight, OW2 plummeted to its lowest point ever, falling to a concurrent player count of 16,919 on Steam. Amusingly, some are attributing this rebound to Marvel Rivals, thanking the game for helping Blizzard lock in.

Now, with a refocused pipeline for the year ahead, players are jumping right back in. However, do bear in mind, this is purely Steam data. It doesn’t factor in those who may still be playing through Battle.net or those on console.

Regardless, Overwatch is evidently trending in a positive direction ahead of the Season 1 launch. Later this week, players will have five new heroes to learn and master, including the long-awaited arrival of Jetpack Cat. Yes, it’s actually happening.