It's been exactly one month since the launch of Overwatch 2, and according to Activision Blizzard's latest financial report, the game has done very well in its first four weeks.

We already knew that some sort of sequel to the hero shooter had attracted 25 million players in its first 10 days (opens in new tab), nearly triple the daily player count at the original's peak, as reported by Eurogamer (opens in new tab). Activision-Blizzard's latest quarterly report (opens in new tab) revealed that the game managed to add another 10 million players during the rest of October, "including those playing Overwatch for the first time." The report also noted that "player investments are off to a strong start," presumably referring to Battle Pass and Cosmetics sales. Overwatch 2 also appears to have been able to maintain a daily player count throughout the month that was nearly triple that of its predecessor.

These numbers are undoubtedly driven by the game's shift in focus to free-to-play. It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on future player retention, but for now it seems to be working in Blizzard's favor. It is also interesting to hear publishers talk about how strong "player investment" is. There have been numerous complaints about the terrible pricing of skins, with old skins costing nearly $20 and new bundles requiring premium currency worth $26 (open in new tab).

The report concludes that Blizzard "has an ambitious slate of regular seasonal updates for Overwatch 2 that will introduce new characters, maps, and modes, including a highly anticipated PvE mode scheduled for 2023. One of the new characters, the tank hero Ramatra (opens in new tab), has already been identified. But we still know very little about what will appear in Season 2 and beyond.

I've been playing "Overwatch 2" quite a bit over the last month. While I'm still not sure how I feel about the new 5vs5 format, and playing support makes me want to tear my hair out more than I did with the original (open in new tab), it still remains the only FPS I can reasonably fit in. Even if Tyler Korpp was a bit modest in his review of Overwatch 2 (opens in new tab), Morgan Park enjoys the game. It's also a little disappointing that Mei is currently inactive (opens in new tab).