Overwatch Has Over Seven Million Active Players According To Blizzard

Overwatch, which launched in late May, has become a global hit with gamers. Blizzard’s foray into the first-person shooter genre seems to have paid off for the company known mainly for World of Warcraft. According to a press release sent by Blizzard, Overwatch has over seven million players across its three platforms: PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. While the company doesn’t release statistics breaking down the numbers by platform, seven million players within a single week of being on the market is incredibly impressive.

“Over the months and weeks leading up to release we saw a lot of love and support for Overwatch—from Blizzard gamers, FPS fans, and people who’d never picked up a game like this before—and we’re very grateful for everyone’s incredible passion and enthusiasm,” Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime said in the press release. Blizzard’s first foray into the first-person shooter genre has become a massive hit, with social media afire daily with new Overwatch plays and commentary.

Since launch, Overwatch has seen seven million players come online, almost as many players as they saw during its open beta phase when the game peaked at 9.7 million players. According to Blizzard, Overwatch players have logged over 119 million hours combined since the game launched, which is insane. In addition, Blizzard has revealed that players have swapped heroes mid-match 326 million times and have delivered 11 million payloads to their destination.

“We poured a lot of effort into creating a game—and a new universe—that anyone could enjoy,” Morhaime continued in the release. “We’re ecstatic to have had such a successful launch, and we’re looking forward to all of the fun, competition, and new content still to come.”

Overwatch has been praised by fans and critics alike, with some outlets giving the game perfect scores in their reviews. However, the game is not without its share of flaws, especially when it comes to rewarding great play with the coveted “Play of the Game” highlight. Blizzard has already said they are tweaking the algorithm to try and get more highlight-worthy clips up there, as the system seems to favor generic multi-kills as opposed to actual, match-altering play by its players.

Overwatch is also skinny on the content when you compare it to games such as Battleborn, a direct competitor which came out a few weeks prior. Both are team-based multiplayer shooters, yet Battleborn does also come with a full campaign, something Overwatch is missing. It has been interesting to see most ignore this fact as well in their praise, considering other games which have featured multiplayer-only gameplay were crucified by press and public alike for doing so while still charging a premium for the game. Overwatch, while entertaining to no end, consists of basically two game modes — control and escort mission — with no real variation when you really get down to it. However, it does these modes so well that many are willing to overlook Overwatch’s content shortcomings, especially since Blizzard has promised frequent content updates in the future.

It would be interesting to see how Battleborn and Overwatch are faring against each other, especially since both games are incredibly similar in their style. According to Kotaku Australia, Battleborn, at least on PC, is dying with player numbers dwindling — fast. This hasn’t been offset by the company’s developer, Gearbox, discounting the game to coincide with the lower price of Overwatch recently. Gearbox has yet to officially announce the numbers of players in Battleborn, so we may never know exactly how well the game is doing against its much-hyped competitor in Overwatch.

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[Image via Blizzard]