Steam has proclaimed Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 and 2K Sports’ NBA 2K24 the first and second worst games of the year, respectively. As of September 12, 165,573 of Overwatch’s 183,780 total Steam reviews are negative, and 3,135 of 3,523 reviews for NBA 2K24 are also negative. Since 2K24 only released on September 8, it’s experienced a particularly swift downfall.
In total, Overwatch and 2K24 created 168,708 unhappy Steam buyers, roughly the same amount of people that live in Kansas City, Kansas.
Overwatch 2 earned its worst Steam game status for complicated reasons. The first-person shooter lived for years on Blizzard’s online store Battle.net, which doesn’t allow gamers to leave feedback. When Overwatch arrived on Steam in August, then, the world was emboldened to finally let Blizzard know: we hate you and your microtransactions.
Still, despite reviewers’ protestations, the game is in Steam’s top 50 most-played list with just under 30,000 concurrent users. Though some fans say they can’t stand what Overwatch has become, they love playing it anyway.
Basketball sim NBA 2K24’s downward spiral is more clear-cut. Not only is the game also filled with microtransactions, but it’s also ugly and uninteresting, buyers say. Though 2K24 has been out for less than a week, fans unfortunately knew what to expect—they’ve been disappointed with the past few NBA 2K24 titles.
2020’s NBA 2K21 was “a full-priced game with the beating heart of a mobile free-to-play scam,” Luke Plunkett wrote in a Kotaku review, and 2021 release NBA 2K22 was “one enormous shakedown.” NBA 2K23, which came out in 2022, likewise, was “a hustle.”
“The hustle is everywhere, from the moment you try to improve your player to big splash screens advertising card packs right down to every time I try to leave the game, where the next menu item down after “QUIT” is “BUY [in-game currency] VC,” Plunkett writes. “VC made its debut all the way back in NBA 2K13, so for a decade, 2K has been grabbing players by the shorts, flipping them upside down on the court and shaking them until all their lunch money falls out, and players just keep on coming back, year after year.”
2K24’s Steam reviews show that this continues to be accurate, though players aren’t happy about it.
“The gameplay and animations are the same as in the previous versions,” a popular negative review says.
“This game is essentially the same as the previous title with no new features or any improvement at all,” says another, “and 2k even dared to charge full price […]? Man…this is soo BAD…”
I don’t know, you guys, sounds like NBA 2K25 could really turn things around.
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