Blizzard talks about the success of Overwatch. Especially the last event overshadowed all others – Retribution was a complete success two years after the release.
Activision Blizzard held the quarterly “Earnings Call”. There, they revealed to investors the status of various games from the studio. As expected, they also spoke about Overwatch and painted a pretty positive picture of Blizzard’s hero shooter.
Accordingly, the Retribution event was as successful as no other event in Overwatch before. It had the largest player numbers of all past events in Overwatch.
This shows that Overwatch can still reach new heights two years after the release. The event took place from April 10 to April 30, 2018. Overwatch was released on May 24, 2016.
Why was “Retribution” so successful? Overwatch is a pure PvP game, but during the Retribution event, there was a PvE map to play. Players enjoyed this the previous year and it was a breath of fresh air for the hero shooter. Thanks to challenging difficulty levels and great skins for many heroes, the event was able to attract many players again in 2018 – more than ever before.
However, there is a bit of trickery with the statement that the “combined time spent playing and watching the Overwatch League” has increased. This could be a euphemism for the fact that pure playtime has dropped, but was compensated for by watching the Overwatch League. In any case: People are still engaging more in their free time with Overwatch.
Parts of the community see “the downfall” of Overwatch
At least on Reddit and in the forums, “doomsayers” have increasingly appeared in recent months, predicting the end of Overwatch. There are several reasons for this: toxicity, the constant changes to heroes, and “apparently overpowered” heroes like Brigitte are said to be responsible for the downfall.
However, participation in the Retribution event tells a different story, as Overwatch is doing excellently.
It will be exciting to see if the event for Overwatch’s second anniversary, the “Anniversary Event”, can break this record again.
A new patch recently went live: Hanzo rework and new map Rialto!
