How many people play Overwatch 2?

Overwatch 2 had a rocky launch in October 2022, but that didn’t stop old and new players from popping in to see what the big deal was when it transitioned into free-to-play. 

April was a productive month for Overwatch 2, marked by the launch of season 16 and a new chaotic competitive mode, Stadium. And the smaller updates weren’t anything to sneeze at either. Not only did we get a third-person perspective option, but a new DPS hero named Freja. It’s only natural to be curious about the state of the player count given the overhauled season. So, how many players does Overwatch 2 currently have?

Overwatch 2 player count, explained

Blizzard has always remained tight-lipped about the exact number of players in its games, but thanks to live trackers and platforms like Steam, we can make a rough estimate of the player count. Considering the healthy competition coming in hot from Marvel Rivals, it’s always worth questioning where Overwatch 2 stands after all these years, and it’s never been more important than now.

As of May 1, the current player count numbers are on a slight rise. We’ve utilized the Live Player Counter via activeplayer.io to get the average player count from the last 30 days across all platforms:

To compare, Activision Blizzard’s Q3 earnings report in 2022 revealed that Overwatch 2 had over 35 million players during its first month. The game reportedly doubled the average daily player count of Overwatch during the former’s first month. 

In more recent months, October through November 2024 were the busiest periods for Overwatch 2 since its launch. Throughout October 2024, season 13’s Spellbinding and annual Halloween events understandably kept player engagement up. November was an even bigger deal with Classic mode appearing as a limited three-week event. Classic mode ignited a surge of players, catapulting the average player count to 22 to 24 million between November and December. January 2025 saw a slight dip to 21 million and an all-time low (not counting early access) of just 20 million in February 2025.

Overwatch 2 Steam player count

So, how does it fare after the new season and its dynamic Stadium mode? The week following the launch of season 16 saw player counts peak at around 45,000 concurrent Steam players in the afternoons. This is somewhat impressive considering Oblivion Remastered shadow dropped the same day that Overwatch 2‘s season 16 went live, with Oblivion scoring 100,000 Steam players on average for that week. Yeah, different genres, but huge shadow drops tend to reverberate across the entire gaming aisle.

Although we cannot confirm the player count on console, Steam shows 28,336 concurrent players at the time of writing.. But this is only a percentage of Overwatch 2’s current playerbase. For comparison, Marvel Rivals has 69,824 players on Steam alone.

From as far back as we can go in the history of active players live player count, Overwatch 2 has raked in greater numbers annually for every first quarter since its release in October 2022. 

These include (across all platforms):

This year’s numbers aren’t nearly so good. The best Q1 month was January, which averaged 21,281,233 players, making this year’s first quarter the weakest in Overwatch 2‘s history. But things are looking up, if only a little. After all, season 16 launched right after the Q1 period, resulting in a significant player boost.

At the time of season 16’s update going live on April 22, Overwatch 2 was sitting at 55,304 concurrent players on Steam. Overwatch 2 is now averaging out at just 33,000 players on Steam since season 16’s launch as we head into May. Season 16 has been one of the most substantial updates in history, so if that doesn’t bolster player retention, it’s hard to know what will. With a strong 59,939 peak in April, the third highest during Overwatch 2‘s tenure, it’s looking like season 16 has given the game the boost of energy it needs.