It’s a big day in the world of Overwatch 2. Not only is the major Invasion season now live, the game is now in front of many more players’ eyes on PC. Overwatch 2 has broken free from its Battle.net shackles and it’s now available on Steam.
You can download Overwatch 2 on Steam here. The game should run fine on Steam Deck too.
If you’re a newcomer to Overwatch 2, welcome to the party! It’s a fantastic game with a lot to check out. Stick with it, and I’m sure you’ll have a blast (if you have any questions, feel free to ask me on Twitter (not X), Bluesky or Threads!).
Whether this is your first time checking out Overwatch 2 or you’re a veteran player who just prefers Steam to Battle.net, there’s one thing everyone will have to do before they can play the game via Steam. You’ll have to connect to a Battle.net account.
I did this before the Steam version went live, but I’m sure the game will direct you to set up a Battle.net or connect to an existing one. On the web, here are the steps I followed:
- On the Connections page of your Battle.net settings, look for Steam in the Connected Accounts section and click Connect.
- Blizzard will then send you to the Steam website. Enter your Steam credentials if you aren’t already logged in, then click sign in.
- If everything goes as it should, you’ll then be taken back to the Battle.net settings page and see a message reading “Successfully retrieved your Steam account details.”
- Click continue to finish the process. You’ll also get an email confirmation that your accounts are connected.
One important thing to note: Make sure you’re connecting the correct Steam and Battle.net accounts. Otherwise, you’ll need to wait an entire year before you can link a new Steam account to Battle.net.
There’s going to be one really interesting thing to keep an eye on now that Overwatch 2 is on Steam. We know that the game’s player engagement has dipped somewhat over the last few months, but we don’t have a real sense of how many people are actually playing it.
However, it’s very easy to see how many people are playing any Steam game at any given time. As far as I’m aware, there’s no way for Blizzard to mask those numbers. I’m sure there will be a lot of people checking out Overwatch 2 for the first time given the Steam debut and the big marketing push Blizzard has given to Invasion. Whether the game can sustain a high player count on Steam in the coming weeks, months and years is another story.
For more news and updates on Overwatch 2 and other games, follow my Forbes blog! You’ll get a weekly round-up email that includes everything I publish. You’d be doing me a solid, too — it’s a great way to support me and my work at no cost.
Read the full article here