Overwatch hits 15m+ global players

Blizzard’s online multiplayer shooter Overwatch has racked up another impressive milestone.

The game has now passed 15m players worldwide. This isn’t quite the same as 15m sales, as some players will be accessing the game from the same machine as others, although nonetheless it remains an impressive achievement.

The game has also broken a long-standing record in China, where it passed Diablo III as the fastest ever selling PC title.

Its success certainly played a part in Activision Blizzard’s record-breaking second quarter, where net revenue climbed 50 per cent year-on-year to $1.57bn. $1.14bn of this was digital money, too, which is another company record.

Blizzard games in isolation attracted 33m players in the period, with Hearthstone also enjoying its best ever numbers. There was a month-on-month increase for World of Warcraft, too, presumably on the back of the Warcraft movie hype and in anticipation of the upcoming Legion update.