Since Overwatch’s release on May 24, there have been more than 7 million players who have logged in to duke it out in Blizzard’s new MOBA-esque first person shooter. Over 119 million hours have been played and eleven million payloads have been capped. Those are some pretty insane stats for a game that has been out for less than two weeks.
It doesn’t really seem like the hype train for the game is going to slow down anytime soon. Overwatch has consistently pulled about 70,000 viewers on Twitch every night since its release, and once the tournament scene and competitive mode eventually get released, Overwatch is only going to get more popular.
The continued support that Blizzard has promised to provide Overwatch is promising. Bans have already been rolling out for players taking advantage of the hacking community’s efforts.
Some game companies make promises about community reformation which never seem to end up coming to fruition (I’m looking at you Riot), so it’s nice to see Blizzard already cracking down on people who are negatively affecting others’ experience with Overwatch.
The balance changes announced recently for McRee and D.Va are somewhat concerning. Buffs and nerfs coming out less than two weeks after a game’s release is a little quick in my opinion, and I’m a little bit wary that Blizzard may end up pandering to the pleas of forum posters about difficulties that can be overcome with better understanding of the game.
Concerns aside, Overwatch is definitely a huge success and I’ve been having a great time with it so far. If Blizzard can stay consistent with adding further content and maintaining the game’s support, we’ll be seeing a lot of chain lighting slinging gorillas smacking down robots for years to come.
