Overwatch

Hey everyone! It’s Alec, here with a Director’s Take that somewhat deviates from our usual set-up. This time around, we’re diving deeper into a philosophy that guides the Overwatch 2 team and dictates how we treat content from all eras of the game.

Over the past few months, many long-term projects have come to fruition in Overwatch 2: Perks switched up core gameplay, Stadium had a fantastic launch, and Hero Bans spiced up Competitive Mode. It’s an exciting time to be a part of Overwatch and we hope you feel the same, since you’re right here with us.

The Living Garden

Brand-new gameplay might be getting the headlines, but I want to take this space to talk about the importance of solid footing as we move into the future. Some folks have expressed worries that introducing so much new content will take attention away from our core game modes, existing Heroes, or areas of the game that need tuning or reworks.

I keep coming back to a metaphor that I hope explains our philosophy about that.

The Overwatch team? We’re groundskeepers. Sure, we’re organizing big events and building proverbial landscapes to draw in new players and entertain our regulars. But at the same time, it’s our responsibility to care for everything that keeps the garden growing. We trim the hedges, pull the weeds, and right the walking paths so we’re all headed in the same direction.

New content is fantastic, but it’s vitally important that we create an environment where that content can do well. That environment must be healthy. Gardens need to be maintained or they’ll never flourish and we feel the same way about all parts of this game.

Reasons to Play, Reasons to Stay

Something our team discusses when planning Overwatch Seasons is that a season should have "Reasons to Come Back and Reasons to Stay." Each season should include a compelling reason for you to play Overwatch, such as new Heroes, new gameplay systems like Perks, or even a brand-new mode like Stadium.

When you do play a new season, though, we also want to make sure the rest of the ecosystem has improved. Whether that's Ranked system tuning, Hero refinement, or future upgrades to our progression systems, each time you check out Overwatch it should be better than you last remember. Regular tune-ups and improvements also make things better for those of you who play Overwatch every day.

We've been utilizing this philosophy for each of our seasons, but we emphasize the weight of “Reasons to Come Back” and “Reasons to Stay” a bit differently for each season. The start of the year—like Season 9 and Season 15—should always feel massive and our moment-to-moment gameplay sees a significant shift. We're currently planning out what that means for next year, but it'll bring big things.

Tending to the Foundation

Mid-year seasons, like Season 18, bring larger updates to core systems or new features that also upgrade your Overwatch experience. Between those beats it's important for us to deliver exciting gameplay for you to check out, but that's where we may weigh refinement more and build out systems that may be more functional than flashy.

For example, Season 17 will introduce a new Flashpoint map—Aatlis—and will also include Map Voting, where you’ll gain more control over the maps you want (or don’t want) to play.

Reworks for Suravasa and New Junk City are in the works and slated for release in the latter half of Season 17. There are lessons we learned with those maps (and others) baked into Aatlis in terms of navigation, objective fights, and choke points. All of these changes, from minor tweaks on existing maps to new areas of exploration, upgrade Flashpoint as a whole.

The Perks system also lends itself to this philosophy. We’re working on a big Perks update for Season 18 where every hero will have something new to experiment with and each Perk will align more closely to our vision for the system. One example is the impact of picking a major Perk. Choosing your Hero’s major Perk should feel like a transformative moment in a match; while some major Perks currently do that, others aren’t quite there yet, and this update should help them level up.

All of this is to say that we recognize we’re adding a lot of new things to the game in a short amount of time. But we’re still committed to keeping Overwatch’s ecosystem—that metaphorical garden—maintained and flourishing.

Features like Hero Bans and Map Voting double as tools that enable us to get an even better read on the urgency for that maintenance. For example, Sombra’s high ban rate sheds light on necessary changes we’ll be making in the future, while Freja's jump in ban rate after her buffs urged us to push hotfix adjustments. Map Voting will do much of the same, helping to inform our map reworks later in the year and bring more attention to modes that aren't meeting expectations.

Your feedback guides us towards parts of the game that need more attention, whether they’re fresh-out-of-the-box or an endemic part of the Overwatch experience. We want to be in conversation with you about how these changes feel. Know that we’re always asking ourselves what constitutes too much, too soon, and if we need to redirect our attention.

Thanks for playing and gg.

Hey everyone, in this edition of the Weekly Recall, let’s talk Stadium! Our team has been having a blast watching you all experiment and enjoy Stadium. It’s a big, bold adventure for all of us and we’re happy you’re along for the ride. Thanks to your feedback, and millions of additional data points, we've been able to tune up some pain points and make Stadium more fun for everyone. Now let’s dive into some ways we’ll be improving Stadium today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Making Better Matches

Matchmaking is a delicate process that takes constant improvement and tweaking on our end, especially for a brand-new game mode. We’ve heard your frustrations and are happy to share some ways we’ll be making better, more balanced matches in the future!

To help folks settle into their matchmaking rating (MMR), we shipped Stadium with an internal modifier that helps calibrate the MMR for new players. The problem is that it was being applied to all Stadium players, not just new players, which caused matches to be wider than initially expected. We’ll be patching this out on June 3 alongside a standard balance patch. We expect matches in Stadium to even out over the next few weeks.

Last week, we deployed a hotfix that bumped the Stadium Ranked Skill Bonus from 25 to 50 for Pro, All-Star, and Legend ranks. We want to make sure players who work hard toward reaching the All-Star tier have a fair chance to reach it and the bonus increase should allow you to more easily hit the top ranks and earn the All-Star Legendary Juno skin. To give everyone enough time to earn the skin, we’ve also extended that challenge through the end of Season 17 to give you more time to climb.

Finally, our team is paying close attention to how Heroes are performing within Stadium and planning measured changes to make a more even playing field. Our newest addition, Freja, made quite an entrance; we understand she can be frustrating to play against, so a new anti-air Item will be added in Season 17. We’ve recently clipped her wings this week with a few more adjustments that should make her easier to handle in the trenches of Stadium.


Builds, Builds, Builds

We’re super excited about a feature shipping with Season 17—Stadium Forge!

If you’ve cooked up the best Build for Soldier: 76 or Reinhardt, you’ll be able to put that confidence to the test with the Stadium Forge system. Builds can be saved in the Stadium Practice Range and accessed during any Stadium match in the Armory. You’ll be able to share your Builds with other players and import exciting (or chaotic) Builds from teammates, content creators, or anyone whose strategy is worth a try.


Additionally, there will also be more example Builds included to guide you on the right path, and we'll suggest Items for early and late game strategies catered to every Hero. Newer Stadium players will get more direct guidance with these Builds while seasoned pros might even try a new Item or two! Whether you’re using a premade Build or crafting your own, we hope you have fun experimenting with all the options out there.

Stadium Forge was far and away the most-requested feature you asked for once Stadium launched and we’re psyched about it, too. Stadium is designed to be a social experience, so the concept of sharing Builds with friends (or the internet) is a hugely important factor for us. As a bonus, content creators and highly-skilled players get a valuable outlet to help others!

Expect a deeper dive into Stadium Forge—full of tips, tricks, and example Builds—in the upcoming weeks.

New Ways to Play

Tons of great content will be heading to Stadium next season, but we want to give you a sneak peek of some changes we’re looking forward to in the not-so-distant future.

An Unranked mode for Stadium will be headed your way soon, so you’ll be able to queue up with friends of all skill tiers! You’ll play a best-of-5 series instead of a best-of-7, resulting in quicker matches with no mercy rule necessary. Powers are given on rounds 1, 3, 4, and 5 and the economy will grant more cash so you can flesh out your usual strategies within a shorter game. This is intended to be a more casual Stadium experience, great for learning the ropes or getting a few games in with friends.

With a more casual version of Stadium comes the unfortunate reality of more leavers, so we’ll also be adding a Backfill feature with Unranked. This will operate in a similar way to Backfill in standard Quick Play. Backfilled players will be given a stack of Stadium Cash equal to the progression of the game and will be able to shop before joining the match.


As the MMR curve evens out, we’ll be enacting more restrictions on grouping in Stadium in a future update. This will be very similar to the system we have in place for Overwatch’s core Competitive Mode, where there are limitations on who you’ll play with (and against) based on skill divisions. High-ranked players and those dealing with long queues should see improvements.

Thanks for playing, and we’ll see you in the Stadium!

- Stadium Developer Team

Season 16 midseason is here with updates, magic, celebrations, and a serious combo of style and substance. Choose your fighter in a hard-hitting collab and join Dokiwatch with a magical Mythic Weapon Skin. Then revisit another Overwatch Classic era in the latest throwback event and don’t miss our month of Pride 2025, filled with a whole lot of heart. Let’s get to it!

Stadium Report

Stadium finally opened and Heroes… you answered the call! With 7.8 million hours logged during launch week, Stadium quickly became the most played mode in Overwatch 2, surpassing Quick Play and Competitive. Over 2.3 million matches were played, 206 million items picked, and a jaw-dropping 900 billion Stadium Cash earned in a single week. We love to see it!

Beginning with the addition of Freja this midseason, Heroes will join Stadium more frequently. And because the best way to play is with more Heroes and friends, from May 20 to June 22, we’re giving away an Epic Loot Box when you buddy up and battle it out in two Stadium games with a friend or group in the Better Together challenge. All you have to do is complete the games but wins count as two. So, become OP together and you’ll only need one game to score the loot!

Remember, Stadium isn’t here to replace Quick Play and Competitive, it’s here to expand what Overwatch 2 can be—More heroic. More strategy. More ways to forge your victory. In Season 17 and beyond, there will be Stadium Trials, a “quest”-style system that will introduce random objectives and bonus rewards. Plus, we’ll be debuting Payload Race, a new mode with two new maps to ramp up the action with race-to-the-finish chaos. And just to note some confusion we’ve heard, the two new maps are not King’s Row or Route 66, they’re completely new Payload Race maps set in those iconic locations.

Additionally, you’ll soon be able to import and export builds, so you can bring your best loadout to every match. And we’re exploring an unranked version of Stadium with cross-play group support so more friends can join the fun, no matter what platform they’re on.

Check out our Stadium Reddit AMA or our Past, Present, and Future of Stadium and Stadium by the Numbers Director’s Takes for more. And stay tuned in on our socials for ongoing updates!


Mythic Merciful Magitech Mercy Weapon Skin

Unleash more Dokiwatch magic on the battlefield! Let your healing shine, your kindness inspire, and your plays sparkle with life, because even in her absence from the Heroes of Heart, the spirit of Mercy endures. The Merciful Magitech Mythic Weapon channels the soul of Eleos, the Hamster of Benevolence, and reimagines Mercy’s Caduceus Staff and Blaster through the radiant lens of Magitech might. Rescued after a daring escape, Eleos now brings kindness, healing, and hope to those Heroes still standing against Woe. When you’re defending your team, this charming companion within your weapon ensures that Mercy's Hero of Heart legacy lives on in every beam, every boost, and every act of compassion.

Customize the Mythic Merciful Magitech Weapon Skin across four magical tiers:

• Level One – A Base of Hope: Gilded designs, glowing elements, and intricate Heart engravings bring Mercy’s Magitech legacy to life.
• Level Two – Eleos Awakens: Eleos reacts to your actions by perking up, spinning with joy, and celebrating your heroic moments.
• Level Three – Flourishes of Mercy: Five randomized flourish animations add whimsy, wonder, and movement to your idle weapon moments.
• Level Four – Magitech Mastery: Stunning ambient VFX fill your every step with sparkles, light, and floating hearts during healing or boosting.

The Merciful Magitech Mythic Weapon Skin is an enchanted love letter to all of you who’ve chosen to heal, protect, and lift your team through the hardest fights. It’s available starting now —so let your light shine, with Eleos by your side!


Overwatch 2 x Street Fighter 6

ROUND ONE – FIGHT! The worlds of Overwatch 2 and Street Fighter 6 collide in an explosive crossover, complete with knockout skins and signature moves in a collab that really packs a punch.

Eight Heroes have been transformed, each embodying the spirit of a Street Fighter 6 icon. Stepping into the ring, we’ve got Legendary Juno as Chun-Li, Kiriko as Juri, Widowmaker as Cammy, Hanzo as Ryu, Zenyatta as Dhalsim, Soldier: 76 as Guile, Winston as Blanka, plus Epic Sigma as M.Bison*.

Choose your fighter (and/or your bundle) with the Ultra Bundle, Mega Bundles 1 & 2, or individual hero skins available in the Shop. Then, complete event challenges to earn exclusive cosmetics and showcase your fighting spirit. If you're looking to channel Psycho Power or send Hadoken-like arrows, this collab is your chance.

Read more in our Overwatch 2 x Street Fighter 6 blog and KO the competition from May 20–June 2.

©CAPCOM

*M.Bison (Sigma) appears as Vega in JA/KR/CN regions.


Overwatch Classic: October 2020 Patch

Overwatch Classic returns with the fan-favorite October 2020 Patch, giving 6v6 chaos, returning balance updates, and fantastic teamplay meta vibes. This limited-time mode resurrects original role queue pacing and iconic hero reworks so expect tank duos and team fights that demand skilled coordination.

• Baptiste: Faster shots and increased heals. His primary fire now hits harder, with snappier recovery and even more healing to keep your team alive and kicking.
• Brigitte: Buffed up and back in the fray. Increased base health makes Brigitte sturdier than ever, ready to hold the line like a true frontline brawler.
• Mei: Chill, freeze, repeat. Mei now regens ammo during Cryo-Freeze and can throw up Ice Walls more often, turning defense into her best offense.
• Symmetra: Stronger shields, stronger hold. Symmetra’s base shield boost gives her extra staying power when locking down space.
• Widowmaker: Base health adjustments bring Widow into sharper focus, refining her risk-reward balance without dulling her edge.

Complete challenges to earn cosmetics that commemorate this classic era and show off your skill whether you're a veteran reliving glory or a new hero discovering it for the first time. The Overwatch Classic: October 2020 Patch event runs May 20 to June 2, so step into the time machine while it lasts!


Show Your Pride

Join the celebration of identity, community, and heroes just like you, as Pride returns to Overwatch 2 this June!

Pride 2025 is a moment to reflect, express, and commemorate everyone who makes our world—and our game—stronger. This event is about standing proud and honoring our diverse community. So, we’ll be celebrating our Heroes, players, and stories with heartfelt touches, creative moments, and space to be exactly who you are.

You belong here, and we’re proud to fight by your side.

So, get ready to show your colors, share your love, and battle with Pride as we celebrate all month long. Be sure to check back for more details in our upcoming Pride blog.


Play Like Palace Royals

Step into a storybook with the Palace Royals Mega Bundle, available in the Shop from June 3–22 and sure to bring drama and romance to every battle.

Royal Princess Mercy leads the cast in a look that blends healing grace with regal beauty and Royal Butler Lifeweaver brings elegance and poise, sweeping allies to safety. Plus, Royal Prince Lucio and Royal Archer Hanzo bring bold color and charm to their royal themes.

These skins are a fairytale collection fit for Heroes who want to fight like royalty and look like it too.

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From Stadium updates and brawling as Street Fighters, to lighting up the battlefield with Eleos or reliving the glory days, the back half of Season 16 is packed with reasons to log in, squad up, and play your way. There’s sure to be something for every Hero to keep the magic alive, so we’ll see you in-game!