Overwatch 2 Engagement and Player Investment Is Declining, Activision Blizzard Admits

Overwatch 2’s engagement and player investment is declining, the game’s publisher Activision Blizzard admits.

In its Q2 2023 earnings report, Activision Blizzard revealed its free-to-play shooter has “declined sequentially” this quarter. However, it thinks the game’s next major update, Overwatch 2: Invasion, which releases next month, should help circumvent the issue.

“While engagement and player investment in Overwatch 2 declined sequentially in the quarter, the Overwatch team is looking forward to the August 10 release of Overwatch 2: Invasion,” the publisher wrote in its earnings report. “This will be the largest seasonal update yet, planned to include new PVE Story Missions, a new game mode, and a new hero progression system as well as an additional hero.”

Overwatch 2: Invasion will introduce the next batch of story missions and is part of the sixth season of the team-based shooter. Last month, Blizzard confirmed the next batch of PvE missions will be locked behind a paywall, costing $15. Additionally, Blizzard confirmed earlier this month that it is likely Overwatch 2 will not get new story missions for at least the next two seasons after the release of Invasion.

Overwatch 2 launched October 2022 as a free download and got off to a strong start, with over 35 million people playing in the first month. In our review of Overwatch 2, which we gave an 8/10, my colleague Simon Cardy wrote that “Overwatch 2 breathes new life into what was once the sharpest multiplayer shooter around, before it had its edges severely dulled by Blizzard’s attention shifting away”.

But Overwatch 2 has endured a number of controversies since, none more potent than the cancellation of its long-awaited PvE Hero mode – the one feature that justified the sequel’s existence.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.