Summary
Marvel Rivalshas been an unequivocal success. The hero shooter launched with astaggeringly high player count, only tobeat it a few weeks later when the game’s first season dropped. It’s alsomanaged to retain those players better than every live-servicetitle released in the last few years. The game hasenough potential content for another 875 years, too, so don’t expect it to slow down any time soon.
Rivals' success has, though, unfortunately, caused a knock-on effect on what is arguably its biggest competitor,Overwatch 2, with theBlizzard-developedhero shooter seeing an almost 40 percent drop in players since Rivals launched.
Overwatch 2 Has Lost Almost 40 Percent Of Its Players In Under Two Months
Using data fromSteamDB, we found that in the three months leading up toMarvel Rivals' launch (September 5 to December 5), Overwatch 2 was enjoying an average player count of 33,738. In the seven or so weeks since Rivals was released, Overwatch 2’s average player count has fallen to 20,565—a 39 percent drop.
For parity, the average player count for Overwatch 2 for each of the three months we looked at was 34,813 (September 5 to October 4), 34,107 (October 5 to November 4), and 32,268 (November 5 to December 4), so it was clearly stable until Marvel Rivals launched.
While correlation does not always imply causation, the timing of the two instances at least indicates Marvel Rivals' launch had a significant impact on Overwatch 2’s player count. Whether it caused the full 39 percent decrease, we’ll never know, but there is a clear link.
Overwatch 2 has always faced an uphill struggle since it launched in October 2022.
The game was revealed as a sequel to Overwatch, a title many considered as not needing a sequel, then completely changed its structure,switching to 5v5. Delays andcomplaints about the game’s early battle passesmeant it got off on further bad footing, and it never really recovered from there. Last November, the developers evenattempted to bring back the classic look and modesof the originalOverwatch, but that mode didn’t move the dial.
With numbers continuing to decline, it will be interesting to see whereActivision Blizzardgoes from here.
