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In terms of ratings, Overwatch 2 could not have released at a worse time on Steam. The hero shooter’s online reputation was in the toilet after Blizzard spent years talking up all the cool PvE and campaign missions the sequel would have, only to deliver a fraction of them extremely late and eventually cancel the rest. So when the free-to-play game finally came to Steam in August 2023, it was summarily dunked on with tens of thousands of negative reviews. In 2025, Overwatch 2 rests at an “Overwhelmingly negative” Steam rating with over 300,000 reviews.
Here’s some good news: For the first time since its Steam debut, its “Recent reviews” rating, which only tracks reviews in the last 30 days, is at “Mixed.” That’s thanks to an influx of good vibes after this week’s Season 15 update, which brought the biggest shakeup to Overwatch 2 since 5v5 with hero perks.
“Overwatch 2 finally released,” wrote user delulu in a positive review.
“I quit last summer but S15 is actually really fun, and I appreciate the risky approach they took,” wrote user Melina in a positive review today. “It’s a really good time to get in Overwatch right now, so I highly recommend giving it a try!”
“If this is desperation, I’m all for it!!!!!! Let’s go competition,” wrote user Skriblyb in a positive review, presumably citing the rise of Marvel Rivals as motivation for Blizzard taking bigger swings with Overwatch.
User Devorp offered a less gracious read of Blizzard’s new rivalry in a negative review: “Devs ignore this game with no updates or balances and they only do something when Rivals is taking all of their users.”
That’s not entirely accurate: Blizzard says it was cooking up its big perks update, which added 168 new upgrades to its 40+ hero roster overnight, long before Marvel Rivals arrived with a bang in December. Another gargantuan update arriving next season, Stadium, has been in development for over a year. That doesn’t mean Blizzard isn’t feeling the pressure of another popular hero shooter on the block, but it’s more likely that a steadily declining interest in Overwatch drove these larger changes in the first place. Rivals is undeniably an accelerant.
I noticed many of Overwatch’s latest positive reviews come from Steam accounts with only a handful of hours played, suggesting some are Battle.net players who booted the game on Steam so they could leave a positive review—the inverse of what happened when Overwatch 2 launched on Steam and garnered over 50,000 negative reviews in 24 hours.
It’s far too early to call this a comeback—and it’s up for debate if Overwatch 2 even needs a comeback as it’s never stopped being popular—but if a dunked-upon game can get back on the good side of its fickle Steam community, it’s a generally great sign for its health. Cyberpunk 2077 pulled it off after being widely criticized for launch bugs.
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Kurt Indovina
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