Overwatch 2 Is Now the Worst Reviewed Game on Steam

Update 8/14/23:

Just four days after its Steam launch, Overwatch 2 has become the worst reviewed game on Steam. More than 90 percent of the 120,496 user reviews that have been left for the game are negative, according to the platform. While many of these reviews are critical of Overwatch 2’s free-to-play business model, as outlined in the original version of this article, some of the latest reviews are from Chinese gamers airing their grievances over the collapsed relationship between Blizzard and its publishing partner in the country, NetEase.

The two were unable to come to an agreement earlier this year, and Activision Blizzard has not yet found a new publisher to keep the game accessible to players in China on local servers. Like their fellow players in the U.S. and Europe, they are now using the recent Steam launch to call out Blizzard for leaving its players behind.

This article's original text follows below:

With Blizzard's Overwatch 2 finally coming to Steam this week after previously being locked to the company's own Battle.net platform, the ability to leave user reviews on the game's store page has been opened up. As such, fans critical of the developer’s decision to relaunch the franchise as a free-to-play shooter filled with battle passes and microtransactions are venting their frustrations.

Overwatch 2 is currently the eighth lowest-rated game on Steam, thanks to a wave of negative user reviews critiquing the game’s business model. Only about 11 percent of the more than 52,000 reviews left for the game are positive, according to Steam’s customer review page.

“Overwatch 2 has no respect for you, it's an attempt to pry open your wallet while masquerading as the game it used to be,” one review reads.

Last September, Overwatch 2 launched in what was supposed to be a triumphant return for the beloved hero shooter after support for the original game drifted off. But that return also drastically changed the business model while introducing little in the way of new content.

A main aspect of the original Overwatch was the vast amount of charming characters to choose from, all of which were available right from the start. In its sequel, however, heroes have to be unlocked through either hours of normal play or by leveling up $10 season-long battle passes. In a competitive game, where some heroes might hold an advantage over others, locking new characters behind a paywall presents a departure from the original game's cosmetic-only microtransactions.

Factor in the failure to include a single-player component at launch, despite the promises of prior advertising, and the long-awaited sequel has now seemingly burned much of the goodwill it had from its once flourishing fanbase.

“Pretty risky putting overwatch on a site that has a public reviewing system,” another Steam review reads.

“Welcome to Steam, Blizzard,” a third says. “Here are all the honest reviews.”

This isn’t the first time the game has received a wave of negative reviews. On Metacritic, the user score sits at 1.4 out of 10 for the same reasons.

Overwatch 2’s controversial debut on Steam coincides with the launch of Overwatch: Invasion, which features three pay-to-play PvE story missions, a new hero, and a revamped progression system. It is also the start of a new season, for which a new battle pass has been made available.

Despite the overwhelming reception from Steam users, the game seems to be performing just fine: it is currently number seven on the platform’s top sellers list, which means more than a handful of people are buying battle passes, in-game currency and the new expansion for the free-to-play game.

The question is whether most players will remain after the one-click commitment involved in claiming a free game. Blizzard's most recent quarterly report said that "engagement and player investment in Overwatch 2 declined sequentially in the quarter," but that the company was looking forward to Overwatch: Invasion to boost both metrics.