Overwatch is dropping the “2” from its name and rebooting for a new era of story-driven gameplay, and already the refresh seems to be drawing players back. Overwatch hit a peak of almost 70,000 concurrent players on Steam over the weekend, the highest the sequel has seen since its all time peak on launch day.
According to Steam charts, Overwatch (which still retains the 2 on Steam for the time being) hit a peak of 69,881 concurrent players over the weekend–shockingly close to its launch day high of 75,608, and higher than it has been in the two and a half years since. The peak in players even saw Overwatch creep past Call of Duty and Battlefield 6–though neither of them are particularly dominant on Steam.
Overwatch has not had a great history with Steam, where its lifetime reviews are only around 27% positive, and concurrent players quickly dropped off after peaking on release day. It’s a surprise to many to see player numbers picking up on the platform, when the game’s first rebooted season hasn’t even launched yet–though a limited-time trial for new hero Anran is currently active.

