Overwatch has seen its biggest surge in years following the release of its new Season 1 update. Blizzard’s popular hero shooter has broken its all-time Steam PC player count record and is also the most-watched game on Twitch right now.
The new Season 1 update introduces the Reign of Talon revamp and drops the “2” from the game’s title. Blizzard has added five new hero characters, started a new live service structure with year-long story arcs, and promised faster hero releases. The update also brings a long list of gameplay changes, system improvements, and quality of life updates, making it the largest Overwatch update in a long time.
As a result, player numbers have jumped sharply. According to Overwatch Steam charts, Overwatch reached a peak of 165,651 concurrent players on PC. This more than doubles its previous Steam record of 75,608 players, which was set when the game launched on Steam in 2023. This makes it the highest player count the game has ever achieved on Valve’s platform.
With these numbers, Overwatch is currently the fourth most-played game on Steam. It sits just behind Counter-Strike 2, DOTA 2, and ARC Raiders. It is also ahead of Helldivers 2, which is seeing strong activity due to its latest update. In comparison, its direct competitor, Marvel Rivals is much lower on the chart, with around 90,000 concurrent players.
These numbers are especially notable because a large part of Overwatch’s PC player base still uses Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher. Even before the update, the game was already climbing past titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield on Steam.
Overwatch is also dominating on Twitch. Around 165,000 viewers are currently watching the game, making it the most-watched title on the platform. This puts it well ahead of League of Legends, which sits in second place with roughly 40,000 fewer viewers.
We at Techlomedia have a dedicated Gaming Portal where you can track game releases, Steam charts, and also monitor Twitch viewership data. This helps players and fans understand how games are performing across both gameplay activity and live streaming interest in real time. All data presented in this article comes from there.
