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Overwatch 2 hits 25m players in ten days

Free-to-play sequel's daily player base triples original premium game's peak daily player count

Overwatch 2 attracted 25 million players in its first ten days of operation, Activision Blizzard announced today.

That's considerably ahead of the original Overwatch's performance – it announced a player base of 15 million nearly three months after its 2016 debut – and Activision Blizzard said daily player counts have nearly tripled the original game's peak mark.

That said, comparisons between the two games aren't exactly apples-to-apples given the sequel is free-to-play while the original was a full-priced product. Blizzard also pulled the plug on the original game days before Overwatch 2's launch.

"The launch of Overwatch 2 has been such an important moment for Blizzard," Blizzard president Mike Ybarra said, adding, "This is only the beginning—there are so many possibilities to explore in the world of Overwatch, and we cannot wait for players to experience everything the team is building for the live game."

Among the planned updates is a PvE mode Activision Blizzard will announce more details for next year.

Overwatch 2 launched on October 4 and while critics gave it a warm reception, there were questions as to whether it should be viewed as full sequel to the original game.

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Brendan Sinclair avatar
Brendan Sinclair: Brendan joined GamesIndustry.biz in 2012. Based in Toronto, Ontario, he was previously senior news editor at GameSpot.
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