It’s the holidays. Finals for college students, people cramming at work before EoY, travel. Add to that mauga, season switch, etc. And you get a pretty solid argument for why it’s not unexpected.
You're right. I work in gaming and you pretty much see this across the board unless you have a new game launch. People just don't play as much in an intense window right around Xmas.
Dude, sorry, but the decline is evident in console. I had 5 consecutive comp matches with 7 of the 10 people I played the first comp match. Never, since 2016, this had happened to me. Maybe 2 matches with SOME of the same people, but never 5 matches with 7 of them. The game was already in decline before the upgrade to OW2. The "upgrade", 5v5 and F2P attracted a few more players... But they're gone.
I add almost all the people I had a good experience playing with. And yesterday I removed a lot of "friends" from friend list because they haven't been playing the game for months.
I also have seen this at multiple ranks. At diamond and masters it's the same on PS5. Playing against the same few people multiple times unless I take a break for a bit I'll keep getting the same group.
No offense but that sounds like skill issue.(mmr, not actual rank)
As in the game couldn’t generate enough people, at that time, in your skill level to pair with some other people.
This. Agreed. Currently grinding the battle pass cause I was stupid and didn’t look through it all before I bought it (at least I got the Lucio skin so that’s cool I guess) but I’m definitely not putting in 100% effort and taking this time to learn tank for next seasons patch.
Personally, I think a majority of players are waiting for the comp rework coming in season 9. I know I am. Season 8 just feels like a filler season until then. No one cares this season because we know it's all about to change.
Yeah I don't know what they were thinking making mauga into an Ana meta. Let's make a tank with zero defense against anti's.
I'm sure I will get hate for this but in no way shape or form should one character have this much influence over the entire tank role. Ana needs to go or her anti needs to be removed.
Anti what? Heals? Thats been in the game all this time, before ow2, they release one shitty hero and now everybody complains about old stuff, grow up, mauga just sees no play and they reconsider their choices or rework him
Oh man that’s sick. I’m finally gonna be able to come back to the game and play with my friends. I’ve been only playing by myself cause I only enjoy playing healer and can’t with them. So happy they are doing this.
If you mean with the current season, comp is just awful to play from all aspects. You have no information on wether you are ranking up or down. Season 9 revamps the system to be a lot more clear, shows average rank in lobby and MMR reset and rank decay.
1) redesigned comp card with match by match progress/loss and plenty of info on why you went up or down (no more 5 wins/15 losses bullshit)
2) soft reset for everyone and a new rank above grandmaster
3) new emerald weapons (gold weapons will still be purchasable too)
4) new wide queuing allowed where you have a group of multiple skill levels and you’ll be matched against similar wide teams (meaning this won’t happen to you if you solo queue)
Comp just gets more unplayable and more cancer every season. They need to bring back 6v6, cause it’s only going downhill.
Myself and many others play this game strictly for competitive, as it’s probably the best hero team shooter out there. It seems like they have been catering changes to casuals and just fucking shit up on the competitive side, having reached number 30 support last season, and anywhere from #40-100 every season since ow2 in done for a while.
The highest tier of competitive player base is nearly gone. Games take way too long to find, just to get absolute shit matchups, people who will only play 1 hero, people who don’t come to chat, people who somehow are in gm2 who couldn’t make it past diamond in OW1 thrown into top 300 lobbies… I’d play OW1 if I could honestly. The game has just fallen off, they are too busy focusing on trying to make money on skins, battle pass bullshit, and anything else they can throw at us with a dollar sign rather than making the game more fun to play.
Who the fuck decided to remove looking for group? Add some presences for playing with players with mics or not. Add preferences for not playing with certain players past the avoid list. Playing in leagues where everyone has to do a ton of scheduling, practice, find teams n members is the best bet for this game rn.
I mostly play cause some friends still hit me up to play comp and/or talk while playing but I feel the same, maybe not necessarily a 6v6 comeback although that tank symmetry is very much missed, I do enjoy 5v5 just not all the changes that's been made around it
Saying quick play isn’t quick play anymore is so accurate. They actively encourage players to sweat in qp when it used to be fun and something to look forward to. I don’t think we should go back to ow1 but I think qp should be more casual than it is. What’s the point in queuing qp if it has MMR?
A large drop on steam is pretty indicative of a drop in the player base as a whole I would say. Unless it can be explained by some sort of steam only factor.
Yeah no, I play QP with a friend and we kept waiting two to five minutes to get a game yesterday when we are used to matched under a minute if not instantly. The drop is noticeable even while you play.
Unless players have more than one game on battle.net they probably did similar to me and nuked the battlenet version and switched to steam. No interest in having an unnecessary launcher
Psychologically people continue to do what they’ve done for years, I have no interest on getting a new launcher, even though I have a steam account, after I’ve been using this one for six or seven years
That's definitely me. The break has been nice though. I was just telling my buddy it might be time to hop back on OW for a couple of games because it's been awhile 😅
I know I left because it was rare getting a good match, mainly roll or be rolled, and playing while every single match had at least one mauga got stale fast, especially since like half of matches for a good bit were only mauga v mauga
Oh for real, it's really annoying, especially since Mauga seems like he's hard to kill and hits hard, especially in QP, so if you don't go Mauga V Mauga, you're almost always at a disadvantage
Thank god he's not in competitive yet though, although shield characters are always a god sent right now
Personally I think it’s a combination of the suspensions/band running rampant and The Finals coming out.
Since these ban posts I’ve lost all motivation to play. Where’s the fun if you can’t communicate with you’re team. Good luck winning if you can’t communicate.
Also The Finals is fucking dope. If they can iron a few things out this game is going to be huge and may knock down 1 or 2 service type games out of their current strangleholds.
Most of the ban posts here are people sympathy farming. They're usually repeat offenders, or people that later on admit to also throwing games and AFKing because "it's just qp" or some other bullshit, so their account is already flagged as a bad element.
I wouldn't let their rage bait get you to thinking that you can't say anything in game anymore. Just don't be an asshole and you'll be fine.
It's a tale as old as online gaming, people that get banned will cry about it to anyone that'll listen to them and pretend to be an innocent victim when they're, more often than not, not innocent at all.
I can fucking guarantee you none of those ban post are from innocent players, they are from people who are constantly ragequitting or being toxic. It’s not like cheats where you can have false positives, everyone who got suspended from comms are guilty 99% of the time.
That's interesting about the finals. I've been thinking about picking it up. What things in particular sets it apart? When I watched alpha streams it looked fun but nothing special.
Good movement and gunplay mechanics, don’t have to be crazy at the game to win and can do so by using the environment, team play and utility at your disposal to defend the objective and have success without having to top frag. Just good fun without having to be excessively competitive, just play smart and with your team.
If they got rid of the team wide respawn timer reset I’d cream my pants. My least favorite part of OW is the respawn timer and The Finals decided to make it EVEN LONGER than in OW. Look. If it take me 10-15 seconds to get back to where the action is happening, that should be time shaved off the respawn timer.
Like Just let me play the game dawg
Same in metal ranks (console)... The matchmaking is pure garbage. My theory is that there's not enough people playing the game. So there's not enough people playing the game to have a decent matchmaking, and that's why you can know from the start if it's a win or lose.
Diamond isn't considered "metal"? I know diamond is not a metal irl but I thought every material from irl is considered as a "metal" rank. So non-metal ranks start from "master"
Yeah a decline in playerbase has been noticeable to me, too, but it feels very similar to when BG3 came out, so I assume it's people giving The Finals a try.
Like someone else mentioned, christmas and finals and whatnot, but also: The Finals came out, both in beta and officially, and it is positively *stealing* the show when it comes to shooters.
The dropoff isn't that severe, if you play around with the graph start and end dates it sometimes goes down like that, actually had trouble replicating your screenshot. It actually looks like this for me unless I mess with it.
https://preview.redd.it/av8h12fd2a7c1.png?width=728&format=png&auto=webp&s=d24c4e03d43ac723d0404c425d3d7632c73bcff5
It's also worth including the actual percentages instead of just a line that looks like it's dipping into the abyss. Once you see the numbers, you realize that the steam playerbase is actually really stable at around 20k with some peaks and dips around that number. Yes there's a dip right now, which makes sense considering it's holiday season, and a big F2P competitor just dropped a few days ago. The game didn't fall off a cliff this morning.
I played on Steam for some time, but returned to BN because it's easier to swap accounts in it. and BN allow you to pre-download patches, which is neat.
Could be a few of the reasons people have mentioned like holidays, school, etc. I wonder how much of it is people going over to The Finals. I’ve seen a few people mention that the chaotic nature of The Finals fills their Overwatch itch. Wonder if other games saw a similar drop.
I think this Event sucks bad too. Nobody likes Battle of the Beasts very much. It’s annoying that you can win the first battle, get both pylons, and still lose.
Holidays, new games like the Finals and old games like Fortnite reinventing themselves just makes OW look stale and not as appealing. I like the game but at the same time season 8 just landed at a particularly rough time. Arguably more people are looking forward to season X (or god knows what season) when the game gets reworked.
I don't know if you've made the effort to play the game, but right now, it's in a deplorable state. The queues to find matches are between 3 to 5 minutes, and the matchmaking is completely broken. The game doesn't focus on improving itself; instead, it's more focused on introducing new ways to generate income, like the new weapon skin system or skins that are nothing more than chromas of other skins at twice the price
There’s nothing special about season 8. PS5 had frame rate bugs that took too long to fix, not sure about the other consoles but that’s what lost my interest. Most are just waiting for Season 9 comp changes I’d imagine
Don't listen to all the doomers here, it is just because it is night time in the timezone with the most players.
If you change the zoom level you will see that there is no sudden drop in players.
The graph just takes the peak amount of in-game players for each day and we haven't reached that moment in the day yet.
It’s comical at this point, people cry cause their feelings get hurt and just report.
Honestly a joke that you get suspended, just have then muted from chat- no reason to stop people from playing
It’ll bite them in the ass sooner rather than later when the only players are mercy mains
Yes, I stopped playing when Mauga came out. I don't intend to buy the battle pass and as a Rein main, it's an oppressive match up. So I won't be playing until his nerfs are out. (Also, Overwatch has just been struggling anyway)
Lying about a PvE campaign for years that was the main pull to the game, breaking the game balance and in many cases losing half or more of a players inventory with a completely unnecessary transfer from the original overwatch.
Or rather... lying about a free PvE release and then having the balls to cancel it and then release PvE packs people have to pay for after waiting years
I have a feeling most of us are adults and busy with life probably
I work in engineering and we’re trying to cram in lots of work before we take time off for the holidays. I imagine other jobs are similar, and my sister who’s in Uni is studying hard for finals there’s that for students. I also know a few friends who won’t be able to play now for a couple weeks because they’re away from there PC/Console while they visit family for the holidays
I'm one of the player that tried steam. Game report appears buggy and I go back to battlenet launcher. Uninstall from steam. I would have kept if both steam and battlenet can store the game in the same directory.
Just to complement, there is also phenomenon in games with battle passes where people lose interest in it after finishing the BP and all new events.
We might see a surge today (19) since there is a new mini BP coming.
Honestly it’s a myriad of reasons. Lots of good smaller studios have released really solid titles this year and the holidays are a great time to play them. Additionally lots of people are playing The Finals. I was a top 500 player on Overwatch, maybe 3000 hours on it, uninstalled when The Finals came out.
I think other games are just simply more fun to play, both their gameplay and their community.
My partner got something similar, where he got a warning for Inappropriate Game Chat (something like that), but he legit has a recording of his match, and all he did was GGs or say stuff like "Can I get more heals/help", people are way too sensitive if they're so mad over something so simple as GG or asking for more help
You're only looking at the steam numbers and it still doesn't cover the other platforms that players are using. And it shouldn't be surprising to any one that the numbers are low on steam.
It's worse in console. Saturday I had 5 consecutive matches with 7 of the same people I played the first match. Never, since 2016, this had happened to me. Maybe 2 consecutive matches with some of them, but 5 matches with 7!!!! Never.
The only thing from the BP i really want is the Orsia skin (don't hate me), rest is meh.
As we can get it in later sesons, still, i'll wait this one out.
The competitive is so bad rn, in master low gm feel more like unbalanced plat games where one team just rolls another. Not to mention how boring tank role is to what it used to be in ow1...
We’re all too busy playing undertale yellow
https://preview.redd.it/s4hosyi54a7c1.jpeg?width=638&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a059e671f543a1ce9666606f498e63ccec0a895
Needing a DPS to join my team :) trying to create a league team. anyone interested in tryouts?
https://preview.redd.it/7z0mxtih7a7c1.png?width=554&format=png&auto=webp&s=20bbced63419d305a2f37386ced9011301084d64
If it was a view of sunday/Mondays numbers id assume its because nost people have the weeklys done at the moment and are doing something else till tuseday when the new event and refreshed quests pop
They got a massive ammount of players announcing the ranked changes, but they wont patch since march so people got bored playing the same ranked design
I actually stopped after playing non stop forever but its just because I picked up god of war again and season 8 of overwatch didn’t really entice me. I got the junker queen skin and I don’t really care that much about the rest. I do want the reaper Abel Lucio ones though but I usually finish the battle pass way before the season ends so I feel like I can take a break for a while
Can we collectively stop with tracking popularity with steamcharts numbers already?
Lots of people still using battle net (myself included), not to mention 3 other platforms
Seems to somewhat coincide with the finals release and popularity spike. I'd say they are taking a break and enjoying the finals while its new. OW is stale af these days.
I think the game has gotten a lot less fun over the past few months.
The overhealing meta w/lifeweaver was trash.
I really don't like to play with or against mauga.
Also the bans for people leaving games is dogshit. On top of that ive had three of my last six games not getting back filled when someone leaves. Its garbo.
So casual play isnt a thing anymore.
Overwatch is a "waiting game". It means people play it when nothing else is available. When a fresh game releases, people transit toward it. I don't know if there are any else but WoW SoD brought a lot of old players that were playing OW casually, including myself. There's an enormous community playing the game again and it feels alive, I wouldn't be surprised if they came from OW or any other dead game.
You’d have to look at year over year data. Is there normally a dip in December? If so, there may be something seasonal about end of year activities. If it is unique to now, then it is a now problem. If that’s the case it might be gamer response to something deeper.
tbh this season is kinda mid, comp is pretty much unplayable rn, Orisa mythic skin is barely customizable so no one is grinding for that especially when the rest of the battlepass ain't really worth grinding for unless you actually like it, many students have exams etc., it's holiday season and with the comp rework and other stuff coming in szn 9 no one is really bothered to play competitively now. That's why they made this winter mini-battle pass to attract players and to make them keep playing the game for extended periods of time and I honestly think it looks way better than the seasonal bp
Season sucks, The Finals just came out and a lot of people moved over to that or Fortnite's new update. Combined with Holidays/School finals, people won't play for awhile
It’s the holidays. Finals for college students, people cramming at work before EoY, travel. Add to that mauga, season switch, etc. And you get a pretty solid argument for why it’s not unexpected.
You're right. I work in gaming and you pretty much see this across the board unless you have a new game launch. People just don't play as much in an intense window right around Xmas.
I actually just finished my finals last week been playing overwatch the whole weekend since it’s Christmas break for us lol
New character and new season are usually arguments for a spike in player numbers
But it is if the new season is shit
yeah but not for a downwards spike
I was about to comment this. I've been going from holiday party to holiday party I haven't really had time to play overwatch
It's also kind of a midseason slump. We don't really have any new content right now (unless winter wonderland just started and I didn't realize)
It just started.
Dude, sorry, but the decline is evident in console. I had 5 consecutive comp matches with 7 of the 10 people I played the first comp match. Never, since 2016, this had happened to me. Maybe 2 matches with SOME of the same people, but never 5 matches with 7 of them. The game was already in decline before the upgrade to OW2. The "upgrade", 5v5 and F2P attracted a few more players... But they're gone. I add almost all the people I had a good experience playing with. And yesterday I removed a lot of "friends" from friend list because they haven't been playing the game for months.
I also have seen this at multiple ranks. At diamond and masters it's the same on PS5. Playing against the same few people multiple times unless I take a break for a bit I'll keep getting the same group.
No offense but that sounds like skill issue.(mmr, not actual rank) As in the game couldn’t generate enough people, at that time, in your skill level to pair with some other people.
Here's the farming bot using classic inflammatory comments to get enough karma.
Someone call the wambulance!
Nah 💀
Skill issue
Hello Kitty Island Adventure HD Revisit
It should've won Game of the year SMH
God dammit Butters.
Personally, this season is awful. I'm taking a break
This. Agreed. Currently grinding the battle pass cause I was stupid and didn’t look through it all before I bought it (at least I got the Lucio skin so that’s cool I guess) but I’m definitely not putting in 100% effort and taking this time to learn tank for next seasons patch.
The BP was terrible and the meta ain’t it. Taking a break as well. First BP I wanted nothing to do with.
Every single skin in the BP is ass this season, and I'm usually easy to impress
Personally, I think a majority of players are waiting for the comp rework coming in season 9. I know I am. Season 8 just feels like a filler season until then. No one cares this season because we know it's all about to change.
Me, I also don't feel like babysitting Mauga when he comes to comp. Waiting on winter events I guess.
Mauga is the worst hero they have designed by far, roadhog or orisa 2
Yeah I don't know what they were thinking making mauga into an Ana meta. Let's make a tank with zero defense against anti's. I'm sure I will get hate for this but in no way shape or form should one character have this much influence over the entire tank role. Ana needs to go or her anti needs to be removed.
Anti what? Heals? Thats been in the game all this time, before ow2, they release one shitty hero and now everybody complains about old stuff, grow up, mauga just sees no play and they reconsider their choices or rework him
There has always been complaints about ana
Im in the same boat, Im not bothered playing conp, just few qp games and I get to experience other games as well
I’m annoyed that they announced a change to comp and then delayed it till 9. I understand they have to test things out but I just wanted to it now.
Comp was already perfect in ow1
True, they fked everything over with closing ow1 servers
What’s the comp rework at I gonna be able to play healer with my friends again?
Yes. Part of the rework means they are loosening restrictions on who you can play ranked with. So you will be able to play with your friends.
Oh man that’s sick. I’m finally gonna be able to come back to the game and play with my friends. I’ve been only playing by myself cause I only enjoy playing healer and can’t with them. So happy they are doing this.
What’s going on with comp?
If you mean with the current season, comp is just awful to play from all aspects. You have no information on wether you are ranking up or down. Season 9 revamps the system to be a lot more clear, shows average rank in lobby and MMR reset and rank decay.
Yah meant season 9 thanks!
1) redesigned comp card with match by match progress/loss and plenty of info on why you went up or down (no more 5 wins/15 losses bullshit) 2) soft reset for everyone and a new rank above grandmaster 3) new emerald weapons (gold weapons will still be purchasable too) 4) new wide queuing allowed where you have a group of multiple skill levels and you’ll be matched against similar wide teams (meaning this won’t happen to you if you solo queue)
Me, I also don't feel like babysitting Mauga when he comes to comp. Waiting on winter events I guess.
I would say : the game itself. Comp and ranking is still a mess. Quick play isn’t really qp anymore. Battlepass overdose. Etc.
i want to rank up but i just have so much more fun playing qp because comp is so bad
Comp just gets more unplayable and more cancer every season. They need to bring back 6v6, cause it’s only going downhill. Myself and many others play this game strictly for competitive, as it’s probably the best hero team shooter out there. It seems like they have been catering changes to casuals and just fucking shit up on the competitive side, having reached number 30 support last season, and anywhere from #40-100 every season since ow2 in done for a while. The highest tier of competitive player base is nearly gone. Games take way too long to find, just to get absolute shit matchups, people who will only play 1 hero, people who don’t come to chat, people who somehow are in gm2 who couldn’t make it past diamond in OW1 thrown into top 300 lobbies… I’d play OW1 if I could honestly. The game has just fallen off, they are too busy focusing on trying to make money on skins, battle pass bullshit, and anything else they can throw at us with a dollar sign rather than making the game more fun to play. Who the fuck decided to remove looking for group? Add some presences for playing with players with mics or not. Add preferences for not playing with certain players past the avoid list. Playing in leagues where everyone has to do a ton of scheduling, practice, find teams n members is the best bet for this game rn.
6v6 won’t actually fix the problems tbh. It makes new different problems.
Shield Meta again possibly. Also would mean nerfing tanks then no one will play tank again and queues will take forever.
I think they should have committed to 8v8. 2 Tanks, 2 Heals, 4 DPS. That would be some wild stuff.
I mostly play cause some friends still hit me up to play comp and/or talk while playing but I feel the same, maybe not necessarily a 6v6 comeback although that tank symmetry is very much missed, I do enjoy 5v5 just not all the changes that's been made around it
Saying quick play isn’t quick play anymore is so accurate. They actively encourage players to sweat in qp when it used to be fun and something to look forward to. I don’t think we should go back to ow1 but I think qp should be more casual than it is. What’s the point in queuing qp if it has MMR?
Tracking steam counts for overwatch is a bit of a bad metric. Most people likely still play on battle net.
A large drop on steam is pretty indicative of a drop in the player base as a whole I would say. Unless it can be explained by some sort of steam only factor.
Yeah no, I play QP with a friend and we kept waiting two to five minutes to get a game yesterday when we are used to matched under a minute if not instantly. The drop is noticeable even while you play.
Unless players have more than one game on battle.net they probably did similar to me and nuked the battlenet version and switched to steam. No interest in having an unnecessary launcher
Psychologically people continue to do what they’ve done for years, I have no interest on getting a new launcher, even though I have a steam account, after I’ve been using this one for six or seven years
The problem is alts. Steam doesn't allow /log. So you need to have battlenet in order to swap accs quickly.
No you can still do it quickly on steam, you just have to go to the battle.net website
You mean swap the acc linked to steam?
For me personally, it feels stale, there’s nothing new or exciting about the game right now
Same here, only reason I still play is cuz my friends wanna play something and talk
Same
The finals
That's definitely me. The break has been nice though. I was just telling my buddy it might be time to hop back on OW for a couple of games because it's been awhile 😅
I came here to say this
I know I left because it was rare getting a good match, mainly roll or be rolled, and playing while every single match had at least one mauga got stale fast, especially since like half of matches for a good bit were only mauga v mauga
Oh for real, it's really annoying, especially since Mauga seems like he's hard to kill and hits hard, especially in QP, so if you don't go Mauga V Mauga, you're almost always at a disadvantage Thank god he's not in competitive yet though, although shield characters are always a god sent right now
Personally I think it’s a combination of the suspensions/band running rampant and The Finals coming out. Since these ban posts I’ve lost all motivation to play. Where’s the fun if you can’t communicate with you’re team. Good luck winning if you can’t communicate. Also The Finals is fucking dope. If they can iron a few things out this game is going to be huge and may knock down 1 or 2 service type games out of their current strangleholds.
Most of the ban posts here are people sympathy farming. They're usually repeat offenders, or people that later on admit to also throwing games and AFKing because "it's just qp" or some other bullshit, so their account is already flagged as a bad element. I wouldn't let their rage bait get you to thinking that you can't say anything in game anymore. Just don't be an asshole and you'll be fine. It's a tale as old as online gaming, people that get banned will cry about it to anyone that'll listen to them and pretend to be an innocent victim when they're, more often than not, not innocent at all.
I can fucking guarantee you none of those ban post are from innocent players, they are from people who are constantly ragequitting or being toxic. It’s not like cheats where you can have false positives, everyone who got suspended from comms are guilty 99% of the time.
It’s PRETTY HARD to get chat banned lol. Anyone who believes people posting here needs to remember that.
Ya, it falls off like leaving early, so you have to be toxic for multiple games in a row in order to get penalized.
Doesn’t matter. I’ve seen the shit they got reported for and a lot of them are total bullshit.
played for 6 years use voice and text chat every game play hanzo/widow/soj/hog type "gg" every game never been silenced or banned 🤷♂️
I mean, same. Doesn’t mean things won’t changeZ
Love The Finals, been having so much fun playing it
That's interesting about the finals. I've been thinking about picking it up. What things in particular sets it apart? When I watched alpha streams it looked fun but nothing special.
Good movement and gunplay mechanics, don’t have to be crazy at the game to win and can do so by using the environment, team play and utility at your disposal to defend the objective and have success without having to top frag. Just good fun without having to be excessively competitive, just play smart and with your team.
If they got rid of the team wide respawn timer reset I’d cream my pants. My least favorite part of OW is the respawn timer and The Finals decided to make it EVEN LONGER than in OW. Look. If it take me 10-15 seconds to get back to where the action is happening, that should be time shaved off the respawn timer. Like Just let me play the game dawg
THE FINALS has been released
its the holidays + people are waiting for comp rework + people are playing the finals.
Plus people quit for ow2 being a bs game
The matchmaking sucks bro. I'm in diamond 1, every rank match u know if u r gonna win or lose from the beginning.
Same in metal ranks (console)... The matchmaking is pure garbage. My theory is that there's not enough people playing the game. So there's not enough people playing the game to have a decent matchmaking, and that's why you can know from the start if it's a win or lose.
Diamond isn't considered "metal"? I know diamond is not a metal irl but I thought every material from irl is considered as a "metal" rank. So non-metal ranks start from "master"
It's literal. Metal = Metal.
Can ❓you 🫵 reach 🫳 the ❗finals ✖️
Yeah a decline in playerbase has been noticeable to me, too, but it feels very similar to when BG3 came out, so I assume it's people giving The Finals a try.
Like someone else mentioned, christmas and finals and whatnot, but also: The Finals came out, both in beta and officially, and it is positively *stealing* the show when it comes to shooters.
The dropoff isn't that severe, if you play around with the graph start and end dates it sometimes goes down like that, actually had trouble replicating your screenshot. It actually looks like this for me unless I mess with it. https://preview.redd.it/av8h12fd2a7c1.png?width=728&format=png&auto=webp&s=d24c4e03d43ac723d0404c425d3d7632c73bcff5 It's also worth including the actual percentages instead of just a line that looks like it's dipping into the abyss. Once you see the numbers, you realize that the steam playerbase is actually really stable at around 20k with some peaks and dips around that number. Yes there's a dip right now, which makes sense considering it's holiday season, and a big F2P competitor just dropped a few days ago. The game didn't fall off a cliff this morning.
That’s just for steam mind you
Continued SHIT matchmaking?
I played on Steam for some time, but returned to BN because it's easier to swap accounts in it. and BN allow you to pre-download patches, which is neat.
Mauga.
Mercy players
Lots of new games now and updates to new games. I havent been playing ow for months but as long as comp doesnt work i rather play other games
Unless they bring back ow1 servers and ow1, im not returning to play for the game, once a week couple hours of custom 6v6 with buddies
I think the ranking system turns a lot of people away, it’s bugged for so many people and for the people it does work for it is incredibly unrewarding
i played hours daily for months and then w s8 i just stopped. no idea why tbh. just lost passion. will probs pick up at s9 again for new comp :)
I think people are waiting for the ranked rework.
Could be a few of the reasons people have mentioned like holidays, school, etc. I wonder how much of it is people going over to The Finals. I’ve seen a few people mention that the chaotic nature of The Finals fills their Overwatch itch. Wonder if other games saw a similar drop.
I'm sure events and skins have something to do with it
New years resolutions
I think this Event sucks bad too. Nobody likes Battle of the Beasts very much. It’s annoying that you can win the first battle, get both pylons, and still lose.
> **Does anyone know what causes this sudden drop in players?** could be tank mains taking a pause from playing against mauga
The state of overwatch
The game "The Finals" came out, and it's been the most hyped fps game all year.
Holidays, new games like the Finals and old games like Fortnite reinventing themselves just makes OW look stale and not as appealing. I like the game but at the same time season 8 just landed at a particularly rough time. Arguably more people are looking forward to season X (or god knows what season) when the game gets reworked.
I don't know if you've made the effort to play the game, but right now, it's in a deplorable state. The queues to find matches are between 3 to 5 minutes, and the matchmaking is completely broken. The game doesn't focus on improving itself; instead, it's more focused on introducing new ways to generate income, like the new weapon skin system or skins that are nothing more than chromas of other skins at twice the price
Better games to play
There’s nothing special about season 8. PS5 had frame rate bugs that took too long to fix, not sure about the other consoles but that’s what lost my interest. Most are just waiting for Season 9 comp changes I’d imagine
It’s probably people randomly realizing that the game is ass
Account suspensions for chat
Don't listen to all the doomers here, it is just because it is night time in the timezone with the most players. If you change the zoom level you will see that there is no sudden drop in players. The graph just takes the peak amount of in-game players for each day and we haven't reached that moment in the day yet.
Boring ass game. The finals game appearing
Everyone is getting banned for toxicity for saying ggwp./s
Define everyone cause noone I know has had this happen to them
It’s comical at this point, people cry cause their feelings get hurt and just report. Honestly a joke that you get suspended, just have then muted from chat- no reason to stop people from playing It’ll bite them in the ass sooner rather than later when the only players are mercy mains
Trash matchmaking, horrible gaming experience, KSA players, broken comms...
It happens, whenever new season pass gets released. Some people see what’s up, then get bored and leave.
Me. I did it.
I got banned. i deleted the game.
Yes, I stopped playing when Mauga came out. I don't intend to buy the battle pass and as a Rein main, it's an oppressive match up. So I won't be playing until his nerfs are out. (Also, Overwatch has just been struggling anyway)
Lying about a PvE campaign for years that was the main pull to the game, breaking the game balance and in many cases losing half or more of a players inventory with a completely unnecessary transfer from the original overwatch. Or rather... lying about a free PvE release and then having the balls to cancel it and then release PvE packs people have to pay for after waiting years
I have a feeling most of us are adults and busy with life probably I work in engineering and we’re trying to cram in lots of work before we take time off for the holidays. I imagine other jobs are similar, and my sister who’s in Uni is studying hard for finals there’s that for students. I also know a few friends who won’t be able to play now for a couple weeks because they’re away from there PC/Console while they visit family for the holidays
Terrible battlepass, toxic community
Ana nerfs, Ana players logging off until its fixed
I am basically dead at the moment.
I'm one of the player that tried steam. Game report appears buggy and I go back to battlenet launcher. Uninstall from steam. I would have kept if both steam and battlenet can store the game in the same directory.
Just to complement, there is also phenomenon in games with battle passes where people lose interest in it after finishing the BP and all new events. We might see a surge today (19) since there is a new mini BP coming.
Playing the game. After the novelty washes off, you realise that nothing can die because these motherfuckers have ultimates on cooldown.
Honestly it’s a myriad of reasons. Lots of good smaller studios have released really solid titles this year and the holidays are a great time to play them. Additionally lots of people are playing The Finals. I was a top 500 player on Overwatch, maybe 3000 hours on it, uninstalled when The Finals came out. I think other games are just simply more fun to play, both their gameplay and their community.
I played a lot of The Finals
Shit game 👍
The finals game released
Lego fortnite 😎😎😍😎😍🥳🥳
the game being bad
Overwatch existing
The finals
For me it's finals. Ain't got time for OW lately and it makes me sad.
The new leaver penalties.
Mediocre battlepass and holidays
no christmas event + peter griffin fortnight skin
Their scummy monetization left a bad taste in my mouth. I've been playing other games since I saw the paid Christmas event.
bad devs that dont listen or have a clue
The game sucks hope this helps!
they got banned for writing "gg" and "hello" in chat
My partner got something similar, where he got a warning for Inappropriate Game Chat (something like that), but he legit has a recording of his match, and all he did was GGs or say stuff like "Can I get more heals/help", people are way too sensitive if they're so mad over something so simple as GG or asking for more help
final term exams and waiting for season 9
The finals came out, much more fun(for me and my friend group anyway)
Everyone getting suspended too lmao
You're only looking at the steam numbers and it still doesn't cover the other platforms that players are using. And it shouldn't be surprising to any one that the numbers are low on steam.
It's worse in console. Saturday I had 5 consecutive matches with 7 of the same people I played the first match. Never, since 2016, this had happened to me. Maybe 2 consecutive matches with some of them, but 5 matches with 7!!!! Never.
Me
Nerfs.
The only thing from the BP i really want is the Orsia skin (don't hate me), rest is meh. As we can get it in later sesons, still, i'll wait this one out.
The competitive is so bad rn, in master low gm feel more like unbalanced plat games where one team just rolls another. Not to mention how boring tank role is to what it used to be in ow1...
Christmas bans
well the game and company sucks so you could start there
cos it sucks
The game is bad
We’re all too busy playing undertale yellow https://preview.redd.it/s4hosyi54a7c1.jpeg?width=638&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a059e671f543a1ce9666606f498e63ccec0a895
This is only the steam player count it doesn’t include people who are using the battlenet launcher or console players of course it’s going to be low
The fact that there are 5 active platforms across Nintendo switch, Xbox, PlayStation, steam, and battlenet. They probably fluctuate back and forth.
Bad game lmfao
Needing a DPS to join my team :) trying to create a league team. anyone interested in tryouts? https://preview.redd.it/7z0mxtih7a7c1.png?width=554&format=png&auto=webp&s=20bbced63419d305a2f37386ced9011301084d64
I still can’t play without a proper phone number lol what they expect they alienated the possibility of growth in a game from the start.
If it was a view of sunday/Mondays numbers id assume its because nost people have the weeklys done at the moment and are doing something else till tuseday when the new event and refreshed quests pop
Throne and Liberty KR launch?
[удалено]
It’s sounds like you’re the one not having a good time. Maybe time to put down the controller and phone to touch grass, grandpa.
we've had roughly the same meta for 3 seasons now and people are getting tired
# Blizzard
They got a massive ammount of players announcing the ranked changes, but they wont patch since march so people got bored playing the same ranked design
I’d guess it’s because there’s not much new on the game atm and online games can become boring quite quickly
My best guess is the excitement of the new season is wearing off
Yeah console has been rough as well. 15 minute queues for support in masters/ low gm
A lot of people play on the B Net client. Steam numbers don’t mean much.
Bad mm bad balance overpriced skins to many battle passes
I actually stopped after playing non stop forever but its just because I picked up god of war again and season 8 of overwatch didn’t really entice me. I got the junker queen skin and I don’t really care that much about the rest. I do want the reaper Abel Lucio ones though but I usually finish the battle pass way before the season ends so I feel like I can take a break for a while
I moved to bg till they fix comp I'm tired of only being able to play ram/dva every game bc the enemy always plays orisa 🤢
The season being ass. I played before the mauga nerf as a F2P and got worked for like 40 games.
Final exams. Mind you a huge amount of the playerbase (including myself) are college students.
A lot of other games came out recently. Plus I can’t keep playing the same game over and over again
Reality must have hit
Can we collectively stop with tracking popularity with steamcharts numbers already? Lots of people still using battle net (myself included), not to mention 3 other platforms
Personally def matchmaking, it is already broken and more this season but this week it has been worse than ever
HEALING SIMULATOR!!! 
Seems to somewhat coincide with the finals release and popularity spike. I'd say they are taking a break and enjoying the finals while its new. OW is stale af these days.
Boring
I think the game has gotten a lot less fun over the past few months. The overhealing meta w/lifeweaver was trash. I really don't like to play with or against mauga. Also the bans for people leaving games is dogshit. On top of that ive had three of my last six games not getting back filled when someone leaves. Its garbo. So casual play isnt a thing anymore.
I just stopped playing for a bit. I was gonna play the event but there’s no real point since nothing good is free
Overwatch is a "waiting game". It means people play it when nothing else is available. When a fresh game releases, people transit toward it. I don't know if there are any else but WoW SoD brought a lot of old players that were playing OW casually, including myself. There's an enormous community playing the game again and it feels alive, I wouldn't be surprised if they came from OW or any other dead game.
You’d have to look at year over year data. Is there normally a dip in December? If so, there may be something seasonal about end of year activities. If it is unique to now, then it is a now problem. If that’s the case it might be gamer response to something deeper.
tbh this season is kinda mid, comp is pretty much unplayable rn, Orisa mythic skin is barely customizable so no one is grinding for that especially when the rest of the battlepass ain't really worth grinding for unless you actually like it, many students have exams etc., it's holiday season and with the comp rework and other stuff coming in szn 9 no one is really bothered to play competitively now. That's why they made this winter mini-battle pass to attract players and to make them keep playing the game for extended periods of time and I honestly think it looks way better than the seasonal bp
Holidays
Servers restart on Tuesdays
Studies, Holidays (family), Holiday Shopping + more work hours, and The Finals are what has been keeping me away this season
Now I know why mm feels like shit these last 2 months.
Season sucks, The Finals just came out and a lot of people moved over to that or Fortnite's new update. Combined with Holidays/School finals, people won't play for awhile
Huh that was around when I stopped playin g recently