Overwatch 2 took a massive beating when it finally hit Steam two years ago, with thousands of negative user reviews reacting to the still-fresh cancellation of its PvE mode. The hero shooter hasn't managed to shed its negative rating since then, but Blizzard's sweeping season 15 changes are seemingly starting to reverse some of that damage.
For the first time in the game's history, the 5,000 or so Steam user reviews logged in the last 30 days have an average 'Mixed' rating, rather than the 'Mostly Negative' it usually sits at. All time reviews have also been able to crawl back from 'Overwhelmingly Negative' to simply 'Mostly Negative', as more and more people are discovering that Overwatch 2 is, in fact, not the biggest pile of trash in existence.
What's causing the slight upswing in public opinion, then? Well, Overwatch 2 Season 15 bought about some of the biggest improvements and adjustments since the game's launch (or free-to-play update, some might argue), including cancellable emotes, upgradeable perks, and the admittedly pretty generous return of loot boxes - once controversial, now nostalgic, even if the animation doesn't induce the same pop of dopamine as it did in 2016.
- Overwatch 2's next seasons go hard after Marvel Rivals lit a fire under Blizzard: upgradeable perks, a big third-person mode, and loot boxes are all coming
- Marvel Rivals isn't going anywhere, so Overwatch 2 is stepping up with game-changing perks and a new mode that borrows from Counter-Strike and League of Legends
"This is the first time I've felt excited about playing OW2," one user review reads.
And it's not just the folks on Steam who are showing more interest than usual. Overwatch 2 also reached over 148,000 Twitch viewers on February 19, the day after the new season's launch, its highest peak since 2023.
There's also the promise of many more exciting changes coming in Season 16, most notably with a third-person-focused Stadium mode that lets you accumulate currency and then unlock some wild modifiers. Buildcrafting in Overwatch? Just what I love to hear.
The other, much more minor reason might come from a dip in enthusiasm for Overwatch 2's main rival: Marvel Rivals, which just got blasted as publisher NetEase laid off the a significant chunk of the game's US-based developers.
Marvel Rivals' success is actually "really great" for Overwatch 2, and the FPS's director says the "pressure" that Blizzard feels is mostly "internal"
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