Right, this one is personal. Watch Dogs 2 is having a massive resurgence in 2026, its biggest moment in nearly a decade, and if you have been on this channel a while you will know exactly why I am grinning about it. This game was huge here. It is one of the games that built the channel. So let me tell you the whole story: how big the comeback actually is, why it is happening, why the game genuinely holds up, and what people are saying about it right now.
How big the comeback actually is
Let me hit you with the numbers, because they are genuinely mad for a game from 2016. Watch Dogs 2 just peaked at around 16,220 concurrent players on Steam in July 2026, its highest count in roughly ten years, since it launched. That came after a jump of over 1,100 percent in a single week. A near-decade-old Ubisoft open-world game does not just quietly wake up like that. Something is clearly going on, and it is worth unpacking.
Why it is happening
There are two things driving it, and they feed into each other.
One, the sale. Watch Dogs 2 went on a massive Steam Summer Sale discount, 95 percent off, dropping it to around £2.49. At that price it stops being a purchase and becomes an impulse. You would spend more on a coffee. When a genuinely good open-world game costs less than a sandwich, a lot of people take the punt, and word spreads fast.
Two, the GTA 6 wait. This is the interesting one. With GTA 6 due in November 2026, there is a GTA-shaped hole in everyone’s schedule, and people are hunting for something to scratch that itch. Watch Dogs 2, with its sunny, chaotic, drive-anywhere San Francisco sandbox, is one of the closest and cheapest things to that GTA feeling you can buy right now. The community has openly connected the dots: folks want a modern open-world playground while they wait, and this one is two quid. If you are in that camp, I put together a proper list of options in what to play before GTA 6, and Watch Dogs 2 belongs near the top of it.
Why the game actually holds up
Here is the thing though. A cheap sale and good timing get people in the door, but they do not keep 16,000 people playing. The game holds up, and that is the real story. Let me tell you what Watch Dogs 2 actually is, because it is special.
It is a third-person, open-world hacking sandbox set in a gorgeous recreation of the San Francisco Bay Area, and you play as Marcus Holloway, a young hacker who joins the hacktivist crew DedSec. The whole city is your toy. You can hack cars to send them lurching into traffic, control cranes and cherry pickers, fly a quadcopter drone to scout, drive a little RC jumper into a vent, and pull the personal data of everyone you walk past. It is a playground where the systems bounce off each other and chaos just emerges, which is exactly why it was so good to make videos in.
But the masterstroke was the tone. The first Watch Dogs was grim, grey and humourless, a brooding revenge story. Watch Dogs 2 threw all of that out and went the other way: colourful, funny, hopeful, soaked in hacker and internet culture, with a crew you actually like hanging around with. It is a game with a sense of joy, and that is rare. Add seamless co-op so you can cause that chaos with a mate, and you have one of the most purely fun open-world sandboxes Ubisoft has ever made. A lot of people, myself very much included, think it is peak Ubisoft open-world design.
Why I love it, and why it was huge here
I am not going to be coy about this. Watch Dogs 2 is one of my favourite games to have ever put on the channel, and the numbers back that up: I have over 200 videos on it. My Watch Dogs 2 Free Roam series was a proper phenomenon here, some of the most-watched content I have ever made, because the game is a perfect chaos engine for exactly the kind of open-world mayhem I love. Every session, the systems would collide into something I never planned, and that is content gold. If you want to see what I mean, I finally got it: Watch Dogs 2 Free Roam is a good place to start, and the whole run lives on the Watch Dogs 2 hub. Seeing this game get its flowers again, a decade later, genuinely makes me happy.
The discourse: best in the series, and a wish for more
The conversation around this resurgence is telling. The overwhelming consensus is that Watch Dogs 2 is the best game in the series. It is warmer and more fun than the miserable first game, and it is widely considered a clear step above Watch Dogs Legion, which chased a play-as-anyone gimmick and lost some of the soul in the process. I dug into Legion’s own situation in is Watch Dogs Legion worth it in 2026 and the talk of a Watch Dogs revival, if you want the state of the wider franchise.
And underneath the nostalgia is a quiet plea: people want more of this. More colourful, joyful, systems-rich open worlds with actual personality, the kind Ubisoft used to make before everything became a bloated icon-farm. A ten-year-old game outperforming its launch is the market sending a very clear message about what it actually wants.
The verdict
If you have never played Watch Dogs 2, this is the moment. At around £2.49 it is one of the best-value games you can buy full stop, it has aged remarkably well, and it is the perfect sunny, chaotic sandbox to lose yourself in while the GTA 6 countdown ticks down. Play it solo, drag a friend into co-op, and just cause problems in the nicest-looking San Francisco in gaming. For the wider open-world picture I keep an honest list in the best open-world games to play solo, but for two quid, Watch Dogs 2 answers the question on its own. Go and enjoy it. I certainly did, about two hundred times over.
The verdict
Watch Dogs 2Ubisoftopen worldresurgenceSan FranciscoGTA 6
FAQ
Why is Watch Dogs 2 popular again in 2026?
Two reasons. First, it went on a huge Steam Summer Sale discount, 95 percent off and down to about £2.49, which is basically an impulse buy. Second, GTA 6 hype: with GTA 6 due in November 2026, a lot of players are looking for a modern, chaotic, third-person open-world sandbox to fill the wait, and Watch Dogs 2's San Francisco fits that bill beautifully. The result was its highest player count in nearly a decade.
How big is the Watch Dogs 2 player spike?
Watch Dogs 2 hit a peak of around 16,220 concurrent players on Steam in July 2026, its highest in roughly ten years since the 2016 launch, after a jump of over 1,100 percent in a single week. For a game this old, that is a genuinely remarkable second wind.
Is Watch Dogs 2 worth it in 2026?
Absolutely, especially on sale. It is a breezy, colourful, endlessly fun open-world hacking sandbox that has aged really well, and at around £2.49 it is one of the best-value games you can buy right now. It is single-player with optional seamless co-op, so you can play it solo or mess about with a friend.
Is Watch Dogs 2 the best game in the series?
Most people think so, and I agree. It fixed the grim, humourless tone of the first game with a fun, hopeful, hacker-culture vibe, and it is widely considered a big step above Watch Dogs Legion. If you only play one game in the series, make it this one.
Is Watch Dogs 2 like GTA?
In spirit, yes. It is a third-person, drive-anywhere, cause-chaos open-world sandbox set in a beautiful recreation of the San Francisco Bay Area. The twist is the hacking: you can control cars, cranes, drones and people's phones, which gives it a flavour all its own. It is one of the closest things to a GTA-style playground while you wait for GTA 6.
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