What time does Overwatch 2 release? It’s been a long and often confusing journey up to this point, but at last the time has arrived. Yesterday Overwatch 1’s servers were shut down for good, and later today its replacement, Overwatch 2, will launch in Early Access.
If you’re one of the thousands of players waiting to see the fruits of Blizzard’s labour over the past several years, then check below to see the exact Overwatch 2 release time for your region, along with when you can start preloading the game, and what to expect when you finally start playing.
Overwatch 2 release time
Overwatch 2 will release on both PC and console today, on Tuesday 4th October. Here’s the exact time that Overwatch 2 will release depending on your region:
- UK: 8pm BST
- Europe: 9pm CEST
- US East: 3pm EDT
- US West: 12pm PDT
- Santos: 4pm BRT
- Seoul:4am KST (5th Oct)
- Sydney:6am AEDT (5th Oct)
Of course it may be that delays occur, as is often the case with the launch of such a large and eagerly awaited multiplayer game. So take the above times with a grain of salt but know that these are the times that Blizzard is aiming to unleash Overwatch 2 upon the world.
If you’ve never played Overwatch 1, then only certain heroes will be unlocked to you when Overwatch 2 does release. The rest of the heroes roster will be locked behind the Battle Pass, meaning you’ll need to play up to 100 matches in order to unlock every hero. Returning players, however, will have the entire roster already available to them.
Overwatch 2 preload times and download size
You can start preloading Overwatch 2 three hours before its release in your region, so that the game is readily installed for when the servers are made live. Here are the exact times when you can start to preload Overwatch 2:
- UK: 5pm BST
- Europe: 6pm CEST
- US East: 12pm EDT
- US West: 9am PDT
- Santos: 1pm BRT
- Seoul:1am KST (5th Oct)
- Sydney:3am AEDT (5th Oct)
The Overwatch 2 download size will be 50 GB for PC players, and 30 GB for console players. This is markedly more than the 20 GB that Overwatch took up before its servers were shut down forever on Monday.
With Overwatch 2, expect a handful of new maps and heroes, reworks to a few existing heroes, minor changes to almost every other character, and the all-important transition to 5v5 instead of 6v6 matches. All this will arrive alongside the new free to play Battle Pass model for Overwatch 2.
