#Overwatch 2 makes eSports World Cup roster regardless of an enormous drop in participant numbers – Destructoid

Hero shooter Overwatch 2 has been named on this 12 months’s roster of titles for the Esports World Cup 2025. It marks the second consecutive 12 months Blizzard Leisure’s title will characteristic, regardless of the sport dropping important participant numbers to competitor title Marvel Rivals over the previous few weeks.

The 2025 event, which can even see gamers compete in video games of EAFC 25, Name of Obligation: Warzone, and Free Hearth, kicks off in Riyadh Boulevard Metropolis all through the summer season.

The rise and fall of Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 launched in 2022 as a successor to the genre-defining Overwatch. Relatively than the usual crew shooters, the hero shooter provides totally different participant characters totally different powers, strengths, and weaknesses. The free-to-play title racked up 25 million gamers inside 10 days of its launch and went on to take pleasure in prolonged success.

Regardless of its early success, Overwatch 2 has come up towards stiff competitors in latest weeks. Ever because the launch of Marvel Rivals, at first of December. Marvel Rivals is a free-to-play title, that features a playable roster of greater than 30 Marvel characters, and it’s a hero shooter, though Netease refers to it as a superhero crew shooter.

The enchantment of enjoying because the likes of Wolverine and Black Widow has confirmed an enormous draw for the title. It managed to draw 10 million gamers in simply 72 hours of launch.

If figures are something to go by, Rivals is taking these gamers instantly from Overwatch 2’s participant base. In response to SteamDB, its participant numbers have been steadily reducing because the center of November when it had a peak participant depend of greater than 56,000. At present, its peak price is round 34,000 gamers.

Steam DB does solely monitor performs on Steam, and Overwatch 2 is on the market on a bunch of platforms, however related drops are prone to have been seen on different platforms too.

The Esports World Cup 2025

Blizzard can be hoping the sport’s inclusion within the Esports World Cup 2025 will assist carry figures. Nevertheless, the event itself isn’t with out controversy. Developed as a substitute for the Gamers8 event, beginning in 2024, the occasion has been marred by accusations of sportswashing, being performed in Riyadh.

Critics have pointed to Saudi Arabia’s human rights report and, specifically, the nation’s therapy of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood. Crew Liquid, one of many largest groups to compete within the event wore rainbow jerseys and pledged a donation of $50,000 to the charity Rainbow Railroad for his or her participation within the occasion.

This 12 months’s World Cup titles are similar to final 12 months’s. Black Ops 6 will change Trendy Warfare III and EAFC25 will change EAFC24, however featured video games embody lots of the standard Esports suspects: Rocket League, DOTA 2, Apex Legends, and Counter-Strike 2. Cellular video games to characteristic embody Pubg Cellular and Cellular Legends: Bang Bang.

Final 12 months’s membership championship was received by Crew Falcons, who took residence $7 million in prize cash. This 12 months’s competitors has a complete prize pool of greater than $60 million, which is a report for the occasion below both of its iterations. Final 12 months, Overwatch 2 had a complete prize pool of $1 million with eventual winners, Loopy Raccoon taking the jackpot of $400,000. Full competitor lists ought to begin being introduced by the tip of February prepared for summer season protection.