With Overwatch 2 recently releasing we thought it’d be an apt time to talk about the original Overwatch and how for better or worse, a lot of the central features of live service games can be traced back to it.

To say that Overwatch had a good launch back in 2016 would be an understatement. The game sold 7 million copies in its first week alone and as of 2022, it had grossed over 50 million USD in revenue making it the 7th best-selling game of all time. Players across the world have united in their love of the game’s world, characters, and fast-paced team shooter mechanics.

With such a popular IP, it’s no surprise that other developers started taking notes on Overwatch and replicated several of its ideas and features in their own games especially when it comes to live service games. Here are just some of the trends set by Overwatch.

Overwatch is a hero shooter: a subgenre of FPS games where instead of equipping a single-player character with new guns and upgrades, you choose from a roster of heroes with different skills and weaknesses. This proved to be the core appeal of the game as characters like Tracer, D.VA and Mercy quickly become some of the most beloved characters in gaming, especially in certain corners of the internet (though if anything though, this kind of content just made them more popular). If you want to know Overwatch and it’s influence on live service games, consider subscribing to our newsletter and read the full article for free just by putting your email address in the box below:

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