Google Trends data for each OW1 Hero Release

General Discussion
1

Data is for the entire world and covers the 3 months after each hero was released. Google Trends data is good for gauging the relative “popularity” of a subject over time. Obviously, there isn’t a direct correlation to Overwatch’s popularity as measured by Google Trends and its playercount, but I feel like this is a far better indicator of the game’s health over them than something as volatile as Twitch viewer count.

Note on how to read the charts:

Ana (7/18/2016 - 10/18/2016): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2016-07-18%202016-10-18&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Sombra (11/14/2016 - 2/14/2017): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2016-07-18%202016-10-18&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Orisa (3/20/2017 - 6/20/2017): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2017-03-20%202017-06-20&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Doomfist (7/26/2017 - 10/26/2017): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2017-07-26%202017-10-26&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Moira (11/15/2017 - 2/15/2018): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2017-11-15%202018-02-15&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Brigitte (3/19/2018 - 6/19/2018): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2018-03-19%202018-06-19&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Note: I was curious about the sudden downturn at the end of June, so I extended it by another month: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2018-03-19%202018-07-19&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Wrecking Ball (7/23/2018 - 10/23/2018): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2018-07-23%202018-10-23&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Ashe (11/12/2018 - 2/12/2019): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2018-11-12%202019-02-12&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Baptiste (3/18/2019 - 6/18/2019): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2019-03-18%202019-06-18&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Sigma (8/12/2019 - 11/12/2019): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2019-08-12%202019-11-12&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

Note: Huge spikes because Overwatch 2 was leaked and announced during this period.

Echo (4/13/2020 - 7/13/2020): https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2020-04-13%202020-07-13&q=%2Fm%2F0128442n

I bothered to do all this because I wanted to see if the common wisdom of “Brigitte drove players away from Overwatch 1” holds up to scrutiny. I honestly don’t think it does, when measured against all other hero releases. Sure, Brigitte may have been a broken mess at launch with disastrous implications for OWL and the higher Competitive ranks - but it really doesn’t seem to translate to large numbers of people leaving the game. IMO (based on what I’ve seen and linked above), it would be easier to make that argument about Doomfist, Wrecking Ball or Ashe - and I think that would also be quite difficult.

10 Likes
2

The OW1 exodus came down to major problems with the games design philosophy that werent addressed for quite awhile.

Not to mention the “Nobody wants to play Tank or Support” problem.

That problem was then replaced by que time problems, because people still didnt want to play them in role que.

4 Likes
3

That’s just a popular phrase people latched onto because it became “cool” to hate on Brig and ppl wanted to fit in

“Bro Brig was the worst thing that ever happened to OW1, it literally killed the game and made half the playerbase quit and ruined Blizzard stock value and lowered my credit score and killed my cat”

9 Likes
4

Seems pretry clear to me that the main things that hurt the popularity of Overwatch 1 were:

  • Repetitive, recycled events - look at the 2016-2022 trend data for Overwatch and see how its popularity stats to drop off as soon as events start repeating in 2017. This is the main factor.
  • Overuse of CC mechanics
  • Overpowered long-range burst damage (yes, necessitated by excessively strong healing from heroes like Brigitte but also others)

There’s a reason these are the key points they’ve chosen to focus on for Overwatch 2 - they were the weak points of the first game.

2 Likes
5

The tank and support exoduses were self imposed though. The forums were filled with people outright saying why they were leaving. The ttk was too high and they did not like the new DPS frag focused design philosophy

1 Like
6

Yeah Id say the main reason began precisely on the day Echo was released.

They stopped all new content from that point and it was just repeat events and silence for the next 3 years

7

There’s a lot of vocal players(and extremely toxic ones) from certain hero player bases who were hard countered by Brig and every meta she brought.

I think this is why the narrative is the way it is.

8

I don’t know why you would think that, lol. Why would anyone google an overwatch hero? Twitch is by FAR a better metric.

9

Why didn’t you continue with Ramattra?

10

Wait is this chronological? Sigma came out after ball?

11

I still think Sigma is the worst thing to happen to Overwatch and I will die on that hill.

1 Like
12

Yep, Sigma was the last tank released for OW1.

1 Like
13

Wow lol I remembered him coming before ball talk about Mandela effect.

2 Likes
14

Release sigma was crazy iirc

1 Like
15

Speaking of trends D.Va was the most popular trend in 2022 on a certain adult website. Hard to imagine but yeah.

16

Real question, how many people here have ever searched for a hero on google?

17

Me. I search for D.Va images all of the time on google images. I love finding new art work of her. I have a folder on my SDD just for D.Va art I find that I like.

18

But I don’t think many are doing this.

And I don’t think it’s a good metric to measure the popularity of ow2 lol

19

I google to get to the wiki page to look up some values when they come up in discussion, but other than that i dont

20

I mean…

It’s google searches. Wtf is that meant to show? Out of all the heroes released brig absolutely was the one to affect the game the most, in every negative way possible.