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Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 was once the king of hero shooters, but the long-criticised free-to-play game has now been dethroned by NetEase’s Marvel Rivals.
Despite some accidental banning issues and some rough progression, Marvel Rivals is skyrocketing in popularity, and Blizzard’s old flame is starting to dwindle.
Marvel Rivals decimated Overwatch
As soon as Marvel Rivals released, Overwatch 2 player counts were hit with the game reaching its lowest concurrent Steam player base on the time of Rivals’ release.
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With the game available on multiple other platforms as well as via Blizzard’s own BattleNet launcher, this isn’t entirely indicative of the game’s overall success.
As one of the most popular live-streamed games on Twitch since its release, Overwatch’s Twitch viewer count is likely more respective of the game’s overall popularity. Following the first weeks of Rivals release, Overwatch viewer counts have drastically declined.
Via Twitch stat teacher Stream Charts, via Dexerto, Overwatch 2 viewer numbers dropped by 10,000 concurrent players. With a usual high of around 28,000 viewers, the game now sees an average concurrent viewer count of just 18,000. That’s a sheer 35.7% drop in viewer counts since the release of Marvel Rivals.
With the recent holiday period, viewer counts for a popular game are expected to increase as viewers have more free time. However, Overwatch 2 livestreams have followed the opposite trend. On the other hand, Rivals is seeing massive concurrent viewer counts upwards of 60,000 viewers at the time of writing.
It’s clear that Marvel Rivals has soared into the gaming zeitgeist thanks to its boisterous art style and stacked character roster. With a new vampiric-themed map on the way alongside the entirety of the Fantastic Four, NetEase’s hero shooter certainly has a lot more going for it than Blizzard’s, but will the latter’s core audience ever disappear?
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