Overwatch 2, the online team shooter that arrived on Steam on August 10, drew attention for an unusually harsh reception from players when its user ratings plummeted to unprecedented lows. Steam250 reported that only about 10% of more than 100,000 user reviews were positive, placing the title at the bottom of the rankings among games with large review counts on Steam. The coverage from DTF Portal highlighted this stark disparity between public opinion and the game’s commercial momentum, painting a picture of a title that sparked debate even as it continued to move units and attract players.
Yet the numbers tell a more nuanced story. Steam Charts showed that the peak concurrent player count for shooters reached roughly 75,000 at certain moments, and the average active player base over the prior 24 hours hovered around 50,000. In addition, Overwatch 2 briefly breached the top 10 in Steam’s sales rankings, illustrating a disconnect between vocal criticism and sustained financial performance. This dynamic underscored a common pattern in live-service games: strong sales and engagement can persist even as sentiment among a portion of the community remains negative, possibly driven by ongoing updates, competing titles, or service-related expectations.
Industry observers speculated that Valve could deploy its automated review-filtering mechanisms to curb review bombardment and preserve a balanced rating ecosystem. Earlier in the year, Steam’s owner removed more than 50,000 negative comments related to War Thunder after developers introduced controversial changes to the game’s economy, signaling a willingness to intervene when review activity appears manipulated or disproportionate. Such actions fuel ongoing conversations about how platforms manage user feedback while allowing legitimate criticism and discourse to flourish, especially around live-state games that frequently adjust gameplay, systems, and monetization models.
Meanwhile, ongoing conversations around platform technology and user experience extended beyond PC gaming. Reports indicated that a PlayStation console generation or update was also in the mix of today’s hardware conversations, underscoring the broader ecosystem in which Overwatch 2 operates. The discourse highlighted how players weigh performance, balance, and content cadence across multiple hardware platforms, and how publishers respond when expectations diverge from what communities feel they are receiving for their investment in time and money.