Overwatch 2 sparks new player boom as beta date edges closer

With the Overwatch 2 beta right around the corner, the original game has seen an influx of new players getting themselves ready for the sequel.

The Overwatch 2 beta is finally set to get going in late April 2022, after what seems like a lifetime of waiting for veteran players.

A ton of new players are also downloading Overwatch to get ready as well though, and it’s led to a massive increase in the size of the playerbase.

New players flooding Overwatch ahead of sequel’s beta

Blizzard doesn’t share exact player numbers with the public, but there are a couple of indicators that Overwatch is gaining more and more new players.

The first is the game’s subreddit, which was one of the top 5 growing gaming communities on Reddit the week of April 11. This prompted a post on the sub asking why, which a new player said was due to Overwatch 2.

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But, the new game hype might not be the whole story. Anyone who’s loaded up Overwatch since basically the start of the Remix event has probably noticed new bronze borders all over the place.

Recently, a number of Hololive VTubers had a great time playing Overwatch on stream exposing a whole new audience to the game as well.

All of these factors have combined to create almost a perfect storm of new players downloading Overwatch. That’s not to say some of them are returning after years of being away, but there’s no denying a lot of brand new accounts are out there too.

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So, while there’s been a ton of talk and speculation about Overwatch 2, this massive addition shows there’s a ton of hype surrounding the title. Now, we’ll just have to see whether or not it keeps up following the beta.