The first weekend of Overwatch's overhaul, now known as Overwatch Season 1: Conquest, was by and large a success. Not only did it introduce five new characters, a nice UI change, and signify a shift in how content will be released going forward, but it also dropped the '2'. And all of this was rewarded with some of the best player counts the game has seen since launch.
On Steam, Overwatch reached an all-time player count peak, clocking in over 165,000 players over the release weekend and creeping past both Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty's concurrent player count. Since then, it's managed to keep a healthy number, which has floated between that high point and 100,000 players.
But it doesn't stop there. Most Overwatch players actually use Battle.net to play, a Blizzard-owned platform that doesn't publicly post player numbers. It meant that we can't say for sure just how successful the overhaul has been, but Blizzard has revealed that the players just keep coming back.
"Overwatch Season 1: Conquest had a higher daily player count in its second weekend vs. launch weekend," Overwatch says in an official social media post. "The first time that has happened since Overwatch 2 launched in 2022. Thank you to everyone who's been jumping into Season 1: Conquest."
Week 2 is even bigger than week 1?!? 🤯THANK YOU to everyone who’s been jumping into Season 1: Conquest! What’s been your favorite part so far? pic.twitter.com/mjDPgLmlxcFebruary 24, 2026
It's hardly surprising. This new era of Overwatch has a lot to offer. Stadium was introduced at the beginning of last year, and offers a different experience to the bog-standard Overwatch games while being close enough to the original thing that players can easily jump between the two. But if you still find it a little intimidating, then you'll be glad to hear that the overhaul also brought new guardrails to Stadium, which offer new players helpful explanations and tips for each hero and what their new abilities do.
If you're more cosmetically inclined, then you have the new skins like the Sanrio collab, which has been a huge hit among my friends. Alongside a new sale tab, which has old skins go on the store at a reduced price. It's small, but there are some surprisingly good deals in there, so worth keeping an eye out for.
But in my eyes, the driving force behind Overwatch is still its quickplay and competitive modes. Team 4 has done a good job balancing the five new heroes which have been added this season, and these games are still fun to play, especially with friends. Oh, and there's also a Jetpack Cat arcade mode for those of you who just want to watch the world burn.
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