Overwatch is officially making its Season 1 comeback.

Overwatch recorded its highest number of players in over a year ahead of a major brand overhaul. Blizzard's hero shooter has had its fair share of twists and turns over the past few years, but it seems to be overcoming some of the recent negativity with its latest pivot. The refresh news was clearly enough. Overwatch Fans return to games in droves.

When Blizzard made the announcement, the fan base was shaken. overwatch 2 We've removed the “2” from the name and reset our approach to seasonal content. Perhaps more interestingly, the developers have confirmed that a whopping 10 new heroes will be coming to the game in the first new season, with five available on day one. The company is going all in on bringing the franchise back to its former glory, and less than a week after the big announcement, the efforts are already showing impressive results.

Overwatch Hello Kitty Collaboration Skin

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Overwatch Season 1 Resumption: Start Time and What's New

Find out the start time and new features for Overwatch Season 1 when it returns this February.

Overwatch records highest number of weekend players in over a year

On the morning of the same day, February 10th OverwatchWith its Season 1 debut, the game's official Twitter account shared that it had just completed its biggest weekend in terms of player count in over a year. This is according to the following news: OverwatchAfter news of the rebranding broke, the number of players on Steam soared by 63%. That was enough to put the hero shooter ahead of its bigger competitors, including: Battlefield 6 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7Steam isn't even the most popular platform for gaming. Now, it seems like we're seeing a similar trend across consoles and Battle.net. Player numbers are growing across all platforms. Blizzard didn't provide any specifics as to what those totals might be, but breaking the record by more than a year before many new updates were released is an impressive feat by any metric.

Who is that character?

Check out the silhouette before time runs out.

Who is that character?

Check out the silhouette before time runs out.

Easy (7.5 seconds) Medium (5.0 seconds) Hard (2.5 seconds) Eternal Death (2.5 seconds)

Season 1 doesn't fully begin until the end of the weekend, but Blizzard gave fans a chance to play as Anran early on. That test run likely served to bring people back to the game, but it's also possible that players who haven't touched the title in a while wanted to reacquaint themselves with it before the new season begins. Anyway, now we have 5 new items. Overwatch With more heroes available to play throughout the year, the recent surge in activity could continue. Only time will tell how big the revival is, but fans seemed to have high expectations for what would lead up to Season 1.

This surge in player numbers is certainly good news for Blizzard, but not everything has been going as the developers would like lately. After announcing the refresh and new season, the company was hit with a wave of backlash over Anran's character design, which looked noticeably different from previous versions. The feedback has become so strong Overwatch's game director announced the redesign before Anran's Trial of the Hero had even finished. It remains to be seen how this quick reaction will play out among fans, as it is unclear how popular the new hero will be. But the controversy serves as a small warning for a big weekend for gaming.

Debates about character design aside, Overwatch's recent rise has been a much-needed breath of fresh air into the game. Overwatch In 2023, it became the lowest-rated game in the platform's history. Since then, things are still rocking, and although recent reviews have been mixed, the game is sitting at a “mostly negative” Steam rating as of this writing. As of now, the new heroes and season structure seem to be a hit, or at least players seem to like the concept, so it could be a turning point for the shooter.