The Overwatch 2 beta is now underway, and fans are starting to form some of their own opinions about the popular hero shooter's sequel. One of the criticisms so far is the game's scoreboard, which some players don't like due to its confusing layout, and a few Overwatch 2 players have offered up some redesigns on social media.
Overwatch 2's beta launched on April 26th, and select players got the chance to play right away on the 26th, or had to watch streams on Twitch to receive a way into the beta. Overwatch 2 is looking to change the state of the franchise's online multiplayer by reducing the team count to 5 by eliminating one of the tank roles, which was listed as a potential problem when it came to queue times. Some high-ranking Overwatch players have even resorted to playing other games while waiting in queues to play.
In Overwatch, this scoreboard was primarily used to display a player's own statistics, informing them if their team and the enemy team's composition, and if their teammates had their ultimate abilities ready. In Overwatch 2, players can pull up the scoreboard with a press of the Tab button, now expanded to show their teammates' kill/death/assist ratio and their damage or healing amount, as well as the enemy team's. The issue some players currently have that the characters each player is playing are displayed on the far left and far right of the scoreboard, making it hard to see the team compositions. A Reddit user named tomas1352 proposed a new scoreboard that puts the currently played heroes in the center, allowing players to quickly see who is playing who.
Outside of scoreboard gripes, Overwatch 2's beta launch so far has been successful, especially on the day when beta codes were being distributed on Twitch. The day after the beta launched, Overwatch 2 saw a massive 1.5 million concurrent viewers on Twitch, making it the most watched game for that day. Those numbers have not been seen in Overwatch on Twitch since the move of the Overwatch League to YouTube.
The Overwatch 2 beta streams have also led to record viewership numbers for some streamers, even one of Twitch's biggest streamers like xQc who got his start on Twitch by playing Overwatch. Some Overwatch streamers on Twitch also saw extremely high numbers for the day, mostly those looking for a chance to jump into the beta.
Despite the fact that hackers have already made their way into the Overwatch 2 beta, it seems like most of the Overwatch community at large seems happy with the direction of the game. It will take some time to see how public opinion settles but for now, it seems to have satisfied some critics of Overwatch. Future beta tests will help the Overwatch team figure out what direction to follow for the future and what its fans want to see.
Overwatch 2 is currently in development, with a beta currently ongoing on PC until May 17th.