Overwatch 2 Overlooked

Since the release of the new 6 v 6 PVP shooter sensation, Marvel Rivals, the similarities it has with Blizzard’s own Overwatch 2 can not go unnoticed. Aside from the general format of both games being objective based team matches consisting of three separate roles; some characters directly mirror each other in play style and ability mechanics. Squirrel girl players jokingly type into chat, “Don’t worry, I’m a Junkrat main”. Star Lord’s ultimate is a mirrored replica of Soldier’s Ultimate. Widow is pretty much identical to Black Widow in name, hitbox, and mechanics. The list goes on. With the comparissons staring one right in the face, it was hard to blame gamers for directly comparing the two as time progressed. Marvel Rivals released December 6, 2024 and is still in it’s infancy. Characters are still to be added, team up abilities are due to change, and new maps are still to come.

The appeal to Marvel Rivals is clear. Fans of the Marvel comics and movies are flocking to be their favorite super hero in battle. Marvel fans are eating good with new lore content being produced through the game, alternate eye astonishing skins, and familiar hero to hero interactions that just captivate your favorite heroes personality. The game is so intriguing, gamers are stating Overwatch 2 has drastically dropped in active players. The illusion is that a wave of players have come from Overwatch 2 and made the switch to Marvel Rivals. Is there actually any truth behind this accusation?

Short answer, No. This fictitious statement is believable, but after a deep dive into each game and their individual following, saying Overwatch 2 has lost is sauce is not something that can be said definitively.

Debaters quickly reference the SteamDB charts to reference 3 values, “active players,”players right now”, “24-hour peask”, and “all-time peak”. Marvel Rivals is sitting at 135,216, 192,634, and 644,269 respectively, while Overwatch 2 is sitting at 28,038, 40,235, and 75,608. Now, this is the extent of research that is typically done and suffices in normal conversation. It will easily convince any commoner that has not dived into the actuality of things. But wait, what’s wrong with this data? Is it not telling the whole story?

See, these numbers only account for Steam players. This excludes all console players for both games. More importantly it excludes the vast majority of Overwatch 2 players that play on Battle.net as opposed to Steam. It’s also worth mentioning that Marvel Rivals is only playable on the newest console generations. Deep diving into the true analytics reveals a more honest conclusion as to what is happening to these two popular games.

Overwatch 2 has had 2 extra years to build it’s gaming community, not to mention it’s adopted fanbase from the original Overwatch that released mid 2016. This fact should cause your brain to look at the SteamDB numbers and be like, “Something ain’t right”. For an extremely popular game that has almost been out a decade to have such whimpy numbers compared to a game that has been out for not even 5 months raises eyebrows. It’s obvious to see that Steam DB is providing a small sample size of Overwatch player; approximately only %11.1.

Truth is Overwatch has lost no traction at all. In fact, it has motivate developers to add fan requested content and game mechanics. According to activeplayer.io Overwatch 2 has an average of 5.7 million player daily while Marvel Rivals encompasses 1.2 million active players daily. These numbers are vastly higher than the figures given in the SteamDB reference people like to throw out there as evidence. To further debunk the theory that Overwatch 2 has been going under, it is obvious looking at the charts that players are still actively engaging in the game just as often as a year ago.

So, if your on reddit, discord, or any other social media platform and get into a conversation about this topic, please be sure to fact check the fact pushers. The love is real for both games, and it could be said that one day Marvel Rivals may very well surpass Overwatch 2. It has a fanbase coming from genres such as cinema and comic books that started in 1939. As for now as a game though, it is safe to say that Overwatch 2 still holds the throne.