Overwatch has spawned an era of memes and drama that no other video game before it has achieved before. Popular video gamers would overlay the gameplay with commentary on any topic of their choice, a combination which worked well with many viewers.

Over the years, Overwatch has managed to cross over a player base of over 40 million subscribers, as reported by game director Jeff Kaplan who revealed this in a developer update. This milestone came not too soon after the game prepared to celebrate its second anniversary with an event that will back the game’s previous skins, Brawls and other cosmetics to shoot around with.

The developer shared details, suggesting that a certain dapper gentleman will be getting a new legendary skin which was requested by the many members of the community. Based on those comments, we can guess its Doomfist, who will be featured in a formalwear from the Masquerade comic.

Why did Overwatch become so popular?

On top of having a massive marketing budget, Overwatch features their action figures in Hollywood, Paris and Busan. They advertised their game before Star Wars: The Force Awakens in cinemas, they even had it documented by Forbes.

Animation quality

The animation quality of the game is top notch; each character is uniquely designed with a bright and colorful feel to them. The dialog is witty and humorous, which contributes to its popularity, the game doesn’t take itself too seriously and even appeals to the segment of video gamers called the ‘non hardcore’ people.

Gameplay
Although Overwatch has been inspired by the teamwork gameplay of Team Fortress 2, it has built upon the concept and improved upon it so much better.

Perhaps the most important part of the game is that paid items and loot boxes do not affect the gameplay directly, they are purely added for the cosmetic effect, making sure that no one gets an unfair advantage.

Each gaming session has 6 players pitted against 6 others in an environment which doesn’t take too long to play.  One simply goes into the game, enjoys themselves, shoots around and gets out. The game has been thoroughly polished by Blizzard Entertainment to eliminate bugs.

Competitive edge

The game has a competitive angle, just like CS:GO and Team Fortress 2, and although it can be argued to become repetitive, where you have to work around a set of balanced rules, practicing them to get better, isn’t that the entire point of competitive games? This is why you often see games like Overwatch and CS:GO in competition arenas compared to more open games such as Battlefield.

Offering from Blizzard

The game is an offering from Blizzard, which is the second most popular game developer after Valve. Having many games under their belt such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series, the company has cemented itself as a household name across the world. Their reputation precedes them, so when they tackles the first person shooter genre elements of Overwatch.

Since the company has years of history behind it and a good track record, gamers easily jump to the conclusion that Overwatch would give more returns compared to other games.