Overwatch Classic Was a Big Success

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 8, 2024 15 Views 6 Min Read
Overwatch Classic Was a Big Success



Key Takeaways

  • The Overwatch Classic mode saw 36% player engagement, a promising sign for its upcoming return in Season 14 of Overwatch 2.
  • Overwatch Classic brought back 6-player teams and old hero abilities, appealing to many players.
  • 71% of players tried Overwatch Classic on its launch day, showing interest in the original game mode.



With Overwatch 2‘s initial trial run of the Overwatch Classic mode having ended, game director Aaron Keller reveals some promising player statistics that demonstrate that the event was a particularly successful endeavor. Though fans of Overwatch 2 will have to settle back into the sequel’s typical 5v5 matches again for now, it seems they won’t have to wait long until Overwatch Classic returns.

One of the most consequential departures that Overwatch 2 made from its predecessor was dropping traditional 6v6 matches in favor of smaller 5v5 ones – a change that has always been heavily criticized by many longtime fans for any number of reasons. Just the limitation of a single tank per team and the smaller overall lobby sizes fundamentally impact the ebb and flow of any given battle, and with many of the game’s other, smaller issues often being traced back to the shift to 5-player teams, it felt inevitable that 6v6 would, in some capacity, make its return eventually.


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Not only did Overwatch Classic bring back 6-player teams for a time, it even returned some heroes’ old abilities from way back in the day, such as Hanzo’s Scatter Arrow. With the limited-time event having run its three-week course, Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller recently provided the community some insight into how the mode performed via various player statistics. Keller stated that the Overwatch 2 team is “really happy with how well Classic did,” with 36% of all player hours being spent in Overwatch Classic when the mode launched in November – a significant level of time investment for an event game mode in Overwatch 2.


Overwatch Classic’s Engagement Metrics Bode Well for Its Return in Season 14


This metric dropped to 4% by the time the limited-time event was nearing its end – stated by Keller to be about the standard level of investment for an event mode near the end of its run, though this does show that no shortage of players chose to return to standard 5v5 matches for one reason or another. Additionally, Keller shared that a whoping 71% of all active players tried out Overwatch Classic at least once on the day it launched. This goes to show that even despite the countless new players that the free-to-play sequel has attracted, a notable majority of players still have a taste for the original.

The total number of players loading up the mode on the daily fell to around 11% as the event came to an end – a decent chunk of players still, and enough to make Overwatch Classic the fourth most popular game mode in Overwatch 2 at the time. Fans can look forward to Overwatch Classic returning for a time in Season 14, and while the mode doesn’t have a set return date just yet, Keller claims that players can expect Classic to make its return soon.


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