Overwatch has been a staple in the gaming community since its launch in 2016. After winning Game of the Year months after release, Blizzard Entertainment stuck by the live-service multiplayer shooter for the long run with years of content updates. As with any multiplayer live-service title, content updates bring fresh cosmetics for the playable characters. Overwatch is no different as players had plenty of skins, victory poses, voice lines, and a bevy of unlockable content to purchase during each new content update.
Overwatch has been an active title for six years, and with Overwatch 2 on the horizon, players have had concerns on how the switch will impact the cosmetics they’ve earned over the years. Leading up to release, Blizzard has done addressed a ton of those concerns, reaffirming that cosmetics will carry over between both games, although the unlocking of heroes and other features are locked behind a First Time User Experience.
However, it seems like the first-time player experience maybe a rough one for newer users especially when it comes to the cosmetic side of the game. One clever Reddit user in the Overwatch community took the time to divulge how much it would cost to unlock every cosmetic in the game and to no surprise, or it may surprise some, the numbers are very high.
If a first-time user were interested in purchasing all of the cosmetics for Overwatch 1’s hero pool in Overwatch 2, it would roughly cost them around $12,000.
One thing to note is the fact that this only counts the first game’s hero pool. Overwatch 1 hosted 32 heroes throughout its life span while the sequel will raise the count to 35 at launch with more on the way in the new free-to-play model.
Another point to note is the price increase of cosmetics with the removal of loot boxes. However, u/loliscoolyay4me’s graph includes the shift of the in-game currency to reflect the removal as a more direct way of earning cosmetics seems to have raised the pricing of items for new players. One user did ask about loot boxes and how much it would cost without the price adjustments to match OW2 to which u/loliscoolyay4me replied:
Free-to-play ricing models are always a tricky business in titles such as Overwatch. However, u/loliscoolyay4me’s post seems to have made a few fans happy by showing them that their accounts are worth big money.