Overwatch Hits Big New Player Milestone

Overwatch has now hit 50 million players since launch, bolstered by the recent release of the Nintendo Switch version, according to Activision Blizzard. The company revealed the new player count in its quarterly fiscal disclosure.

This comes just after the latest update, 1.45, added Hero Pools at the start of Season 21. That disables certain characters from competitive play, with rotations coming weekly. This was largely seen as Blizzard's solution instead of a pick and ban feature, which had been rumored just before the announcement. The Hero Pools feature may not return for Season 22, depending on how Blizzard assesses its performance. This is part of a new strategy to iterate with balance changes more frequently.

Overwatch was also impacted by the recent coronavirus outbreak, prompting the studio to cancel several esports events slated for China.

Meanwhile, Blizzard is working on Overwatch 2, which will introduce new story content as well as characters, maps, and modes that will come to the original game too. The development of Overwatch 2 did impact the original one for a time, though, leading to less frequent updates.

The Activision Blizzard financial statement also revealed that Call of Duty Mobile is doing very well for Activision, prompting even more mobile ports for the future. And sure enough, another Call of Duty is coming this year.