We’ve definitely not pulled punches when discussing Overwatch from Blizzard; the first-person-team-based-shooter easily has its fair share of lumps and moles across an otherwise brilliant title that brings the hero pools of MOBA titles, such as League of Legends while encouraging users to switch up the playstyle on the fly by selecting new heroes in the spawn room, as the match is progressing.
There are certainly a large swath of things for the userbase to gripe about (which we do readily), and the stats for the standard league aren’t particularly inspiring, but today Blizzard-Activision revealed their financial reports, and the short of it is: Overwatch isn’t going anywhere in a hurry.
Activision-Blizzard isn’t necessarily hurting, either: the earnings statement that lept fourteen cents above of projected yearly earnings per share (a considerable feat when you take into account the pandemic); revenue was higher than expected $1.77 billion was earned versus the $1.67 expected as well.
While titles such as Modern Warfare easily took the lead in terms of popularity and month active users, Overwatch surprised almost everyone at this point, as Blizzard states they still have ten million monthly active users within the team-based title.
While this could lead to the question, then, of why the staggering majority aren’t tuning into the Overwatch League streams, a question which must have been asked consistently within board rooms, there is absolutely no denying that the title continues to have a massive following.
This bodes well, even considering the absolute absence of forthcoming material regarding Overwatch 2; it’s coming eventually (and likely we’ll know more for the upcoming online BlizzCon in early 2021); there is clearly still a strong market for the title which seems to promise a healthy future.
This bodes well for the next season of Overwatch League, where the ongoing Thanos snap that has teams dumping their rosters as contracts expire have offered a bit more upheaval than most esport leagues tend to have; an aspect that players have also noticed and have some frantic to jump at any opportunity to play.
Overall, Activision-Blizzard has remained impressively stable throughout the pandemic, considering the upheaval of both Leagues, the news of CDL being played on PC with PS4 controllers, and Overwatch League losing its homestands. On top of that, we had the biffed Warcraft 3 Reforged launch, Shadowlands delayed, and more than a few moments of bad PR for the former-juggernaut of PC gaming.
It’ll take more than a few dozen shaky moments to slow down Activision-Blizzard, apparently.
