Overwatch — the recreation previously often known as Overwatch 2 — is having fun with one thing of a revival proper now, hitting its highest concurrent peak on Steam since its 2022 launch.
Whereas the recreation has but to enter its “new, story-driven period” with a year-long narrative, 10 new heroes, and a main overhaul — all that goes reside ranging from tomorrow, February 10, though we did get to satisfy Anran over the weekend — the promise of new content material has followers leaping again into the recreation after Overwatch 2 ditched the 2 final week, leaving us with the title Overwatch. Once more.
SteamCharts suggests the recreation averaged a concurrent peak of round 40,000 since November, albeit with a 50K peak in December. In the final 30 days, nonetheless, this has shot as much as 69,135 gamers, making February 2026 the busiest month for Overwatch since its launch, which noticed a peak of 75,361 individuals. That is an nearly 11% enhance and we’re not even midway via the month but.
Introduced final week at the Overwatch Highlight, Blizzard revealed its first year-long storyline, The Reign of Talon, which is able to give attention to the antagonistic faction Talon because it takes over round the world, whereas Overwatch continues to combat again. In-game occasions, hero trailers, animated comics, quick tales, and map updates will inform a story throughout six seasons rolled out all through the whole 12 months, starting with the launch of 5 new heroes on February 10 as the new season begins.
On the Talon aspect, new heroes will embrace Domina (tank), Emre (harm), and Mizuki (assist), and on Overwatch we’ll get Anran (harm) — who some of us met over the weekend — and Jetpack Cat (assist). Extra heroes will take part the future, with a new hero added in every of Season 2-6 to return. A brand new story arc is deliberate to start with one other Season 1 in 2027.
We’re additionally getting a Whats up Kitty-themed in-game occasion from February 10-23, a new Meta Occasion referred to as Conquest, the place gamers select to align with both Overwatch or Talon over 5 weeks to compete for rewards together with lootboxes, skins, and titles. There’s additionally a main UI and UX overhaul with a new hero foyer and a promise of quicker navigation on the manner.
As we summarized final week, it is no shock Blizzard is in search of a contemporary begin for its beleaguered hero shooter. The sequel stumbled out of the gate, and whereas it noticed a large surge of gamers at the begin, these numbers dropped in the following 12 months. As time went on, consumer evaluations complained about a quantity of points equivalent to monetization and controversies round the cancellation of the recreation’s long-awaited PvE Hero mode. Actually, this is not even the first main overhaul Blizzard has introduced.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years expertise working with some of the world’s greatest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.