Twitch star Ninja says "Overwatch is dead" because Marvel Rivals has enough source material to fuel "the next 10 years"

Overwatch 2
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Many players have been quick to dance on the supposed grave of Overwatch 2, especially after Marvel Rivals' quick ascent to the top of several most-played and most-streamed games charts. And now, popular streamer Ninja (Richard Tyler Blevins) also had some choice words for former hero shooter lynchpin Overwatch 2, while bigging up Marvel Rivals' long-term prospects.

In a recent livestream, reposted elsewhere on the internet, Ninja, who has 19 million subscribers on Twitch, delved into why he thinks "Overwatch is dead and gone" after Marvel Rivals' mega-popular launch. "Just in general, the Overwatch 2 launch was just abysmal - it was an update," he said, before also mentioning the canceled PvE mode that was used to justify the '2' at the end of the title.

"I mean, it's just so unfortunate," he continued. "Here's the thing... [Marvel Rivals] already has a new map coming, which is incredible. Second, they have so much lore, and so many heroes, and villains, and anti-heroes. They have enough for updates for, like, the next 10 years." 

Marvel Rivals is, at least, promising to add new playable characters and maps at a much faster rate than Overwatch 2 has been. Director Guangyun Chen said upcoming Marvel Rivals characters would be coming every six weeks, in contrast to Overwatch 2, which adds a new hero every second season. Though I don't think Overwatch designers need comic book source material to fuel the next decade of updates because, y'know, they've already been expanding Overwatch for nearly 10 years with something called imagination.

"Overwatch is dead" is, no matter how much you love to hate the game, a pretty hyperbolic statement, though. Blizzard Entertainment just teased "groundbreaking PvP changes" coming to Overwatch 2 very soon, and many of its best ideas are still inspiring Marvel Rivals in both its limited-time modes and hero movesets. 

Famed Marvel Rivals pacifist begs the developers to reverse their accidental 22-points worth of damage they inflicted: “It’s a No.” 

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.