By Yoon Sung-won
Blizzard Entertainment’s online multiplayer first-person shooter “Overwatch” has clinched the top perch in Korea’s online game rankings, Saturday, ending the 203-week-long lead of “League of Legends.”
According to data by game market research agency Gametrics, Overwatch ranked first in terms of popularity in PC rooms here with a 29.36 percent share as of Friday, beating League of Legends which had 29.17 percent. Though the shooting game’s market share rose to 29.63 percent on Sunday, League of Legends had 29.79 percent and took back the top perch.
Before the release of Overwatch on May 26, League of Legends, which already has popular e-sports leagues both at home and abroad, had maintained its market share at around 40 percent. But the number had gone down to around 30 percent since June.
Considering that the market share fluctuates more on the weekends, expectations are high that Overwatch may continue its early popularity, which has already beaten market projections so far, in a longer-term perspective.
An industry source said the market success of Overwatch in terms of PC room rankings in Korea is notable considering its pay-to-play business model. Unlike free-to-play games, which is a dominant game business model both for online computer and mobile titles in Korea, users have to purchase a license code or a package including the code to play a pay-to-play game.
“Overwatch has adopted a pay-to-play model, not a subscription-based or free-to-play model and still has proven successful, beating a long held stereotype in the Korean market that pay-to-play games cannot hit the market here anymore,” he said. “Considering that Overwatch provides a highly competitive and immersive gaming experience in its six-on-six matches, its popularity is likely to expand once the company rolls out the rating system and organize e-sports competitions.”
In Overwatch, users choose from 21 characters, which each belong to one of four roles ― offense, defense, tank and support ― and join a team of six players. The users are asked to cooperate with their teammates to achieve a given goal in each round such as occupying an enemy base or carrying cargo to its destination.
When Blizzard Entertainment unveiled Overwatch in 2014, many gamers were surprised to see that the company, which has established its reputation mostly in role-playing and real-time strategy games such as “Starcraft,” “Warcraft” and “Diablo,” was developing a shooter for the first time in its history. Another concern from Korean gamers was that Overwatch’s futuristic background may not land well as sci-fi content has been relatively unfamiliar to users here.
However, Overwatch has defied such concerns and debuted as No. 3 in the PC room rankings at its release on May 26. It has also beaten shooting game “Sudden Attack” and football game “FIFA Online 3,” which had maintained the second and the third place spots for years, before competing with League of Legends.
Blizzard Entertainment said it has sold more than 7 million copies of Overwatch as of June 3. On Wednesday, it also said the game has drawn over 10 million users around the globe.