Overwatch — the sport previously often known as Overwatch 2 — is having fun with one thing of a revival proper now, hitting its highest concurrent peak on Steam since its 2022 launch.
Whereas the sport has but to enter its “new, story-driven period” with a year-long narrative, 10 new heroes, and a serious overhaul — all that goes dwell ranging from tomorrow, February 10, though we did get to fulfill Anran over the weekend — the promise of latest content material has followers leaping again into the sport after Overwatch 2 ditched the two final week, leaving us with the identify Overwatch. Once more.
SteamCharts suggests the sport averaged a concurrent peak of round 40,000 since November, albeit with a 50K peak in December. Within the final 30 days, nevertheless, this has shot as much as 69,135 gamers, making February 2026 the busiest month for Overwatch since its launch, which noticed a peak of 75,361 folks. That is an virtually 11% improve and we’re not even midway via the month but.
Introduced final week on the Overwatch Highlight, Blizzard revealed its first year-long storyline, The Reign of Talon, which can concentrate on the antagonistic faction Talon because it takes over world wide, whereas Overwatch continues to battle again. In-game occasions, hero trailers, animated comics, brief tales, and map updates will inform a narrative throughout six seasons rolled out all through all the 12 months, starting with the launch of 5 new heroes on February 10 as the brand new season begins.
On the Talon facet, new heroes will embrace Domina (tank), Emre (injury), and Mizuki (help), and on Overwatch we’ll get Anran (injury) — who a few of us met over the weekend — and Jetpack Cat (help). Extra heroes will be part of sooner or later, with a brand new hero added in every of Season 2-6 to return. A brand new story arc is deliberate to start with one other Season 1 in 2027.
We’re additionally getting a Whats up Kitty-themed in-game occasion from February 10-23, a brand new Meta Occasion known as Conquest, the place gamers select to align with both Overwatch or Talon over 5 weeks to compete for rewards together with lootboxes, skins, and titles. There’s additionally a serious UI and UX overhaul with a brand new hero foyer and a promise of sooner navigation on the best way.
As we summarized final week, it is no shock Blizzard is in search of a recent begin for its beleaguered hero shooter. The sequel stumbled out of the gate, and whereas it noticed a huge surge of gamers initially, these numbers dropped within the following 12 months. As time went on, person evaluations complained a couple of variety of points akin to monetization and controversies across the cancellation of the sport’s long-awaited PvE Hero mode. In reality, this is not even the primary main overhaul Blizzard has introduced.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and guide with 15+ years expertise working with a number of the world’s largest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.