When people think of hero shooters, Overwatch is typically the first game that comes to mind, although it wasn’t actually the first. Battleborn was the first game to use the term ‘hero shooter,’ and games like Team Fortress 2 and League of Legends helped shape the genre. However, Overwatch really established what a successful hero shooter looks like and became the defining game in the category.
While Overwatch has seen its share of triumphs, its story isn’t simply one of success. The game’s history has been full of both incredible peaks and disappointing lows. The wins, losses, and surprising resurgence of Overwatch offer valuable lessons for both those who study history and those who create games.
The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Overwatch
A Tumultuous History With a Promising Future
Overwatch was first released on May 24, 2016. Since then, the game has gone through several significant phases, including the announcement and release of Overwatch 2, the emergence of the game Marvel Rivals, and a recent update that essentially relaunched Overwatch this year.
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2016: The Golden Era of Overwatch
When World of Warcraft became incredibly popular in 2004, it set the standard for all other massively multiplayer online games. Many companies tried to create games that could compete with—or even surpass—WoW, but none succeeded. Despite this, Blizzard Entertainment decided to develop its own competitor to World of Warcraft, called Project Titan. This new game was planned to be an MMO set on a futuristic Earth. However, Project Titan proved too ambitious and was ultimately canceled in 2013 after Blizzard had invested over $80 million in its development.
After the cancellation of Project Titan, Blizzard created Overwatch. This marked the first time in over ten years that they developed a completely new game and ventured into the team-based shooter genre, as they had previously focused on real-time strategy and role-playing games. Fortunately, the gamble worked: Overwatch was a huge hit, winning Game of the Year in 2016 and becoming the defining hero shooter for years to come.
Blizzard Entertainment is known for creating hugely influential games. Beyond popular titles like World of Warcraft and Overwatch, Diablo essentially established the standards for action role-playing games viewed from above, while Warcraft and StarCraft were pioneers in the real-time strategy genre.
As a huge Overwatch fan, I remember 2017 and 2018 being incredible years for the game! The Overwatch League really took off, building a massive esports scene, and Blizzard kept things fresh with new heroes all the time. They even tried out story missions with Overwatch Archives, which was awesome. Honestly, those years were some of the most exciting for the game, with so many people playing and talking about those crazy, unforgettable metas!
2019: Big Promises and Dark Secrets
At BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard announced Overwatch 2. This sequel to the popular hero shooter was set to feature updated graphics, a comprehensive player-versus-environment mode, and a change to 5-player teams instead of 6. Like many other multiplayer games, Overwatch 2 would also be free to play. It offered a lot of exciting possibilities, and the future of the game seemed promising.
Things didn’t go as planned. Blizzard shifted its focus to developing Overwatch 2, which meant the original Overwatch game started to receive less attention. They used to release at least three new characters each year, typically every few months, but that slowed down significantly – only two in 2019, one in 2020, and none at all in 2021. The gap between the last two characters before Overwatch 2 (Sigma and Echo) was eight months, and after that, there weren’t any major updates for over two years. This lack of new content really hurt excitement for the upcoming sequel.
| Hero Name | Release Date | Time Since Last Hero |
|---|---|---|
| Overwatch Launch Heroes | May 2016 | – |
| Ana | July 2016 | 2 Months |
| Sombra | November 2016 | 4 Months |
| Orisa | March 2017 | 4 Months |
| Doomfist | July 2017 | 4 Months |
| Moira | November 2017 | 4 Months |
| Brigitte | March 2018 | 4 Months |
| Wrecking Ball | July 2018 | 4 Months |
| Ashe | November 2018 | 4 Months |
| Baptiste | March 2019 | 4 Months |
| Sigma | August 2019 | 5 Months |
| Echo | April 2020 | 8 Months |
| Overwatch 2 Launch Heroes | October 2022 | 30 Months |
The situation at Blizzard was even more difficult than it appeared publicly. In a recent interview, former Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan explained the circumstances surrounding his 2021 departure. He revealed that Activision Blizzard executives prioritized developing Overwatch 2 solely to increase profits. While declining player numbers and pressure from the Overwatch League were already problematic, the final blow came when the company’s CFO demanded Kaplan generate a specific revenue target by a certain date, threatening 1,000 layoffs if he failed. Essentially, Overwatch 2 was set up for failure from the beginning.
2022: The Dark Age of Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2’s player-versus-player mode became available in early access in October 2022. While the game initially did well, its launch was complicated by problems with how players could spend money, disagreements over changes to heroes like Doomfist and Bastion, and the shift away from the traditional 6-player team format. However, excitement for the promised player-versus-environment content, planned for release in 2023, helped offset these issues.
Hopes for large-scale player-versus-environment (PvE) content in Overwatch 2 were dashed with the release of Season 6: Invasion in August 2023. Blizzard significantly reduced their plans for PvE, canceling most of it and releasing only a small set of story missions with the season. Though enjoyable, these missions didn’t offer much replay value. Blizzard considered them unsuccessful and hasn’t released any further story missions since.
Season 6 marked the release of Overwatch 2 on Steam. However, the game received overwhelmingly negative feedback from players, leading to a massive wave of negative reviews – so many that Overwatch 2 became the lowest-rated game on the platform.
2025: Pressure from Marvel Rivals Lights a Fire Under Overwatch
NetEase launched Marvel Rivals in December 2024. This team-based shooter offered fresh features like environments you can destroy, cooperative gameplay, and a unique third-person perspective. It quickly received positive reviews and became more popular than Overwatch 2, attracting more players across all gaming platforms.
Blizzard quickly responded to challenges by implementing significant changes they had already been developing for Overwatch 2. The February 2025 showcase introduced features like Perks, a new Stadium game mode, the return of 6v6 gameplay, player voting for maps, and hero bans. 2025 proved to be a successful year for Overwatch 2; although Marvel Rivals still performed better overall, Blizzard’s game was finally becoming self-sufficient and competitive again.
2026: A New Era for Overwatch
It might seem strange, but the changes coming in 2026 with Overwatch were actually made possible by the work done on Overwatch 2 in 2025. During a 2026 presentation, Blizzard announced significant updates to the game, launching on February 10th, including a surprising move: removing the ‘2’ from Overwatch 2.
- Year-long storylines, with Reign of Talon being the one for 2026
- Ten new heroes in 2026, five of which dropped in Season 1
- Domina
- Anran
- Emre
- Mizuki
- Jetpack Cat
- Sub-Role passives for every role:
- Tank
- Bruiser
- Initiator
- Stalwart
- Damage
- Flanker
- Recon
- Sharpshooter
- Specialist
- Support
- Medic
- Survivor
- Tactician
- Tank
- In-game meta events, such as Conquest in Season 1
- New menus and user interface
- Praise voice lines for every hero
- Map and hero reworks throughout the year
- Post-match accolades in Season 2
The recent re-release of Overwatch has been incredibly popular. It quickly became a huge hit on Steam and Twitch, with more players joining than ever before across all platforms. Player numbers were so strong that Overwatch ranked as the sixth most played PC game in February. While overall reviews are still somewhat negative, recent Steam ratings have improved to ‘Mixed’.
It’s unusual for a game to recover as well as Overwatch has, and now that it’s gaining popularity, it needs to maintain this positive trend. If it does, Overwatch could become a legendary comeback story, joining games like Final Fantasy 14, No Man’s Sky, and Cyberpunk 2077 that successfully turned things around.
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2026-03-25 18:41