How many people play Overwatch? — 2024 statistics

Overwatch 2 reached over 35 million players in its first month.

(Source: Dot Esports)

• When it was released in May 2016, Overwatch quickly garnered 7 million players.
• By October 2016, the player count had reached 20 million.
• In October 2022, Overwatch 2 attracted over 35 million players within its first month.
• In November 2024, Overwatch 2 averages 6.4 million daily players, totaling approximately 23.7 million monthly active users.
• 10 million players tried the open beta of Overwatch before its official release.

Even at a standstill, Overwatch continues to attract players. The shift to Overwatch 2 and the free-to-play model has reignited the player base and helped Blizzard capture significant engagement.

68% of Overwatch eSports fans are between 18 and 34.

(Source: VentureBeat)

• The average age of professional players in the Overwatch League is 19, as many started playing very early.
• The general player base averages around 22 years old.
• Forums suggest that players are mostly teens and young adults.

Overwatch has always appealed to younger audiences, and its competitive environment further reflects this. Many players enter competitive leagues at a young age, leading Blizzard to enforce an 18+ rule in its official eSports events.

Overwatch 2 helped Blizzard achieve record bookings in Q4 2022.

(Source: Games Industry)

• Overwatch reached $1 billion in revenue by 2019, largely driven by in-game spending and unit sales.
• The launch of Overwatch 2 boosted Activision Blizzard’s financials significantly, driving record net bookings in late 2022.
• Loot boxes were a primary revenue stream in the original Overwatch game.
• Overwatch 2’s free-to-play model introduced battle passes and other monetization strategies.

The revenue model has evolved with Overwatch 2, showing Blizzard’s adaptability to changing trends. Battle passes and other microtransactions continue to sustain the game’s profitability.

The studio has won 30 awards and received 30 accolades from 2016 to 2020.

(Source: IMDb)

• In 2016, it won 10 awards and received 5 accolades.
• In 2017, it won 14 awards and received 16 accolades.
• In 2018, it won 5 awards and received 3 accolades.
• In 2019, it won 1 award and received 5 accolades.
• In 2020, it received 1 accolade.

Overwatch’s success in awards shows its consistent quality and impact. The game’s reputation is cemented by these accolades, especially as it continues through Overwatch 2.

Overwatch usage stats

Time to take a closer look at how the game is consumed by the community. From the countries where the fans are the most invested to a ranking of the favorite heroes of professional players (with numbers!), we got it all.

The countries with the highest number of players are the US, Russia, and Brazil.

(Source: Player Counter)

• The US is at the top as #1 with 25%.
• The percentage of players in Russia is 8%.
• The percentage of players in Brazil is 7%.
• The United Kingdom and Germany represent the rest of the Top 5.

This list does not represent professional players. It is just about the normal and casual players.

D.Va is the most played heroine chosen by professional players with a pick rate of 66%.

(Source: Dashreset)

D.Va has always been an all-time favorite, not just for professional players. In fact, there are quite a lot of players who decided to specialize in playing as young women. Her lines are relatable for gamers, she has a great character design (a hit among female players) and she is adaptable in her -aggressive- gameplay. She was so good that Blizzard actually nerfed her over the years.

Reinhardt has been the go-to hero to use as the tank as he was the favorite for players on all consoles.

(Source: Overbuff)

• Cassidy was the favorite for offense on PC (24.91%) and Switch (19.36%). On PlayStation (23.61%) and Xbox (22.63%), it was Soldier: 76.
• Hanzo was the favorite for defense on PC (37.83%), Junkrat on PlayStation (29.80%) and Xbox (29.59%), and Torbjörn on Switch (34.98%).
• Ana was the favorite for support on PC (33.36%), but Mercy takes the rest of the cake on Switch (25.97%), PlayStation (27.22%), and Xbox (25.88%).

The real question is: do PlayStation and Xbox players know that they are scarily similar in their tastes?

In 2019, Twitch paid $90 million for two years of exclusive Overwatch League streaming rights, later succeeded by YouTube for $160 million.

(Source: Twitch)

Overwatch eSports

Blizzard said that they were not focused at all on the eSports aspect of Overwatch, but the facts clearly show something else. The game is literally made for such and the company is even the only publisher/developer in the industry funding and managing its own league.

On its first opening day in 2018, Overwatch League peaked at 425,000 viewers on Twitch.

(Source: VentureBeat)

• 10 million viewers tuned in for the first week of the inaugural competition.
• The prize pool for The Overwatch League Playoffs amounted to $1.7 million.
• The number of viewers peaked at 1,227,636 and the average number of viewers was 269,468.
• The total hours watched was 7,163,345 and the event was on air for 29h.
• The event was broadcast on Twitch, PandaTV, and Zhanqi.

A solid start for the first edition of the Overwatch League. Blizzard demonstrated that a publisher can perfectly take care of its eSports community and events. In 2018, China was included in the stats.

13 million viewers watched the first week of Overwatch League 2019.

(Source: Variety)

• At any minute, there was an average of 440,000 viewers.
• The prize pool for The Overwatch League Playoffs amounted to $3.5 million.
• The number of viewers peaked at 318,019 and the average number of viewers was 113,751.
• The total hours watched was 5.7 million and the event was on air for 50h.
• The event was broadcast on Facebook Live, Youtube Live and Twitch.
• The Grand Finals drew an average of 1.12 million viewers.

The numbers obviously look way smaller since this time, China was not broadcasting the event. However, those are still pretty good. The Grand Finals was the last nail in the coffin confirming that Overwatch was eSports golden.

The prize pool for Overwatch League Playoffs 2021 amounted to $3.2 million.

(Source: Esports Charts)

• The number of viewers peaked at 183,292 and the average number of viewers was 135,320.
• The total hours watched was 4,115,958 and the event was on air for 30h.
• The event was broadcast on Youtube Live, Huya, and Twitch

It is now definitive that Overwatch League is losing viewership year after year. Those numbers include China, but otherwise, the average number of viewers did not even reach 100,000. The question is: why are people tuning in way less? 

The total cumulative Overwatch League prize money awarded amounts to $31.7 million.

(Source: eSports Earnings)

• The ranking is dominated by South Korea with a total of $16.6 million earned.
• The USA is second with $3 million earned.
• And China is the third force to be reckoned with $2.7 million earned.
• There are a total of 20 teams in the League. A team has to pay $20 million for franchise rights.

There is no surprise to see South Korea as #1. Its players have been recognized for their superior skills and it is to a point that there is literally no team out of the 20 teams in the League without a Korean player. Congratulations to China for their breakthrough as, not that long ago, they were part of the big minority and mostly known for losing all their games.

The top 3 of highest-earning Overwatch players are dominated by South Korea.

(Source: Dexerto)

• Smurf is #1 with a total of $348,295.
• The first non-Korean is the American Moth with $346,909.
• The third position is occupied by ChoiHyoBin with $345,768.
• The minimum salary of a professional player in the Overwatch League is $50,000/year

Again, the South Koreans are dominating. However, an American took the second spot for himself. Fourth is another American (super) and fifth is a South Korean (Rascal).

To sum up

Overwatch started as a big trend. It was part of those games that can actually attract people with no interest in video games. A lot of that was also due to all the hype that “normies” generated around it until they decided to give up on it. But, does that mean that the game then died? No, absolutely not.

When things like that happen, it is really after the temporary residents leave that you can fully assess the interest the crowds had for the game. And Overwatch still retained a huge amount of players and a big community. So, the game is all good. It went on to provide new characters, new maps, new upgrades, new skins…And even at a standstill, like right now because of Overwatch 2, it still manages to garner a lot of active players and even draw in new ones. How swell is that?