Overwatch 2 has been stuck in the trenches of Steam's worst-reviewed games for nearly two years now, but somehow, against all odds, it's clawing its way up.
After drowning in overwhelmingly negative reviews when it first launched on Steam in 2023, the game has finally managed to pull itself into Mostly Negative territory, and recent reviews have even hit a Mixed rating. That might not seem like a huge victory, but considering the hole Overwatch 2 dug itself into, this shift is significant.
Several factors have played a role in this turnaround, with Season 15 being one of the main ones. Blizzard rolled out some major updates, bringing back loot boxes (yes, the same loot boxes people once campaigned against), introducing a new Perks system, and setting up some exciting content drops for the rest of the year.
On top of that, Overwatch 2 finally made its way back to China after a long absence, which really helped boost the numbers. A huge chunk of the game's negative reviews were from Chinese players who were understandably upset when Blizzard's deal with NetEase fell apart, leaving them locked out. Now that they can play again, the flood of review-bombing has started to calm down.
Another factor is Overwatch 2's recent popularity boost on Twitch. Overwatch 2 saw a spike in viewership after the update, briefly pulling in over 130,000 concurrent viewers. That was enough to beat Marvel Rivals and put it on the same level as League of Legends and CS2. Some of that can be credited to Twitch Drops boosting engagement, but numbers are numbers.
There's no denying Overwatch 2 deserved some of the backlash it got early on. Blizzard fumbled the PvE content that was supposed to be a core selling point, and the monetization shift didn't sit well with longtime fans.
But at a certain point, the negative reviews became less about the actual gameplay and more about people dogpiling on a trend. This is where things get murky. There's a difference between valid criticism and review bombing, and Overwatch 2 became a prime target for the latter.
People play for five minutes to leave a thumbs-down. Others were leaving bad reviews not because of the game itself but because they were mad at Blizzard as a company. And while that frustration is understandable, it does make you wonder how much of the outrage was about the game versus the brand behind it.
Meanwhile, you've got games like Call of Duty pulling off even worse monetization tactics without getting slammed as hard. That's not to say Overwatch 2 has suddenly redeemed itself. The game still has its flaws. Ranked play is still a frustrating experience, hero balancing is an ongoing struggle, and the PvE situation will probably never be fully forgiven.
But despite all of that, the core gameplay remains strong. Even after all the controversy, it's still one of the most polished FPS games out there. Is this the start of a full-blown redemption arc? Hard to say. The game still has a long way to go before it can win back the trust of its original player base.
Blizzard has promised more updates, new heroes, new modes, and ongoing balance changes, and if they can keep delivering, maybe the sentiment will continue to shift.
At the very least, Overwatch 2 has proven it's not dead yet. People are still playing it. People are still watching it. And slowly but surely, people are starting to review it a little more fairly.
The internet might love to hate it, but if Season 15 is any indication, the game isn't going anywhere anytime soon.