After four years away, BlizzCon® is returning to Anaheim, California on November 3-4! We’re so excited to get everyone together again, celebrate our communities, and share what we’ve been working on.

This year, the goal is to make BlizzCon® feel more experiential than ever before. It will be a one-of-a-kind immersive experience, bringing attendees into the universes of Warcraft®, Diablo®, and Overwatch® with massive installations, art, and thematic spaces where friends can connect. Whether you’re kicking back in Azeroth, exploring the mysteries of a dark cathedral of Sanctuary, playing alongside the heroes of Overwatch®, or tuning in from home, we want you to feel you are entering universes alongside your friends as you celebrate and experience what we’re building next, and hear from developers all across Blizzard about their vision for our games, their craft, and more.

This is the first time we are building BlizzCon this way, an...

With Season 5 now underway, we’ll be bringing new improvements to Competitive Play, including matchmaking updates, bringing back a popular ranked game mode, as well as testing new ways for friends to play together regardless of their individual skill levels. Let’s look at where Competitive Play stands today and where we are looking to take it in the months to come.

Competitive Play Currently

For the last few seasons, we’ve been working to make improvements to matchmaking—with a focus on Competitive Play—in an effort to bring players of equal skill levels together. Notably, this season, we’ve started to prioritize placing similar groups with wide skill ranges into the same match: while this makes queue times a little longer for large groups, it helps to ensure a fair match.

In the previous season, we started to provide a matching rank (to show how close each player is to the overall average skill rating of the lobby), along with showing you where ...

There is a lot going on in the world of Overwatch right now. Season 5 launched this week, and we’ve started releasing information about Season 6—also known as Overwatch 2: Invasion—with its Story Missions, new hero, game mode, and much more.  This week, we’ll go over a few topics: Season 5 and the changes to the Battle Pass that we've made, the game modes that we'll be releasing this season—with a focus on the 5-stack mini-season—as well as some thoughts on stomps in Overwatch and how they relate (or don't) to matchmaking.

Let's jump into the Battle Pass. We've heard feedback that you would l...

Last week, we announced Overwatch 2: Invasion, including Invasion Story Missions coming August 10.  We want to show you more of what's in store for our all-new adventure and biggest season yet; this Wednesday, Matt "Mr. X" Morello will be joined by Overwatch 2 developers Kim Horn, Dion Rogers, Daniel McGowan, and Aaron Keller as they showcase gameplay from some of these missions for the very first time. Watch it live on June 21 on ...

Welcome to the Overwatch World Cup 2023 Online Qualifiers! Now that Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Finland qualified through the Wild Card Challenge, the stage is set for teams to earn their spot in the first Overwatch World Cup LAN tournament in 4 years.

Schedule Overview

You can find the full match schedule here.

Where to Watch

Watch live and earn Overwatch World Cup drops for Overwatch 2 on the following platforms:

PlayOverwatch (...

There’s a new threat to the world as the invasion of Null Sector begins. The world is thrust into chaos, and it’s up to a new generation of heroes to save the day. Overwatch 2: Invasion brings new Story Missions, an all-new PVP core game mode, new ways to build on your skills with your favorite heroes - and, yes, a new Support hero!

Find out how you can jump into the action with the Overwatch 2: Invasion Ultimate Bundle, earn and collect new Legendary skins, and get a head-start in the upcoming Null Sector-themed Premium Battle Pass.

The rise of Null Sector begins with new Story Missions

In Zero Hour, we saw the ro...

Welcome brave heroes! The kingdom of Overland is in danger, and it will be up to you to save it from the terror of the Demon Lord! New adventures, magical skins, ways to play, and updates are coming in Overwatch 2’s latest season!

For Season 5, players will progress through the season Battle Pass to the theme of an epic role-playing adventure, including new challenges and game modes as part of a high-fantasy theme and unlock an all-new Mythic Adventurer skin for Tracer.

Join Tracer and her friends in Questwatch

We’re updating Battle Pass progression to unlock new rewards, plus we’re also introducing a fun new story with progression to some of your favorite heroes. Tracer, Emily, Orisa, and many of their friends have gathered together for a night of fun and games, enjoying a new role-playing campaign, Questwatch.

Tracer, alongside her trusted companion GR-iffon Orisa, has set out to explore the magical kingdom of Overland to become a knigh...

As Season Four ends, I'd like to look at the game's balance. This season we saw a wide selection of heroes get played, and for the most part, the game felt fairly balanced. From a win rate perspective, Seasons Three and Four were some of the most balanced in recent Overwatch history! With this in mind, let's look at three different topics from Season Four and talk about how they will change in Season Five and beyond. Specifically, I’d like to go over heroes like Junker Queen and Lifeweaver, one-shots, and crowd control abilities in 5v5.

There were a few standouts from a tuning perspective in Season Four. In the midseason patch, Junker Queen was given a series of buffs, and she really started to dominate. Her win rate popped up by about 5%, and she went from being one of the lowest-picked tanks to one of the highest. For most skill tiers, Queen and Reinhardt were the two most picked tanks for the latter half of the season. However, at Masters and above, Qu...

Pride is coming to Overwatch 2!

Overwatch 2 is a joyful escape for millions of players worldwide. We always set out to create a futuristic world that is worth fighting for, where everyone feels seen and celebrated. This game is only worthy of that hopeful world if people can connect with our heroes and see themselves in the universe.

We want Pride to be that for our players. And just as important, we want that for ourselves. One thing we have heard from both players and Overwatch team members alike is that seeing themselves in the game over the years has helped them find the strength and courage to show the world who they are. We are a diverse development team and it's important to us that the universe we are creating–the world that we pour our passion and energy into–represents us, and represents a world that we want to be a part of. The work that we are putting in front of the world is an extension of ourselves.

A core tenet of Overwatch 2 is giv...

Hey all. It's been an emotional week in the world of Overwatch. A few days ago, we talked about our change in approach to PvE in Overwatch 2 and released a high-level roadmap for the year. We're really excited for everything we’ll be launching soon, but much of the discussion this week has been about how we’re cancelling PvE outright, which isn’t accurate, so I want to take some time to discuss some of that with you here.

When we announced Overwatch 2 in 2019, the idea for the game was centered around the PvP game we released last October, and on the PvE side, Story Missions and Hero Missions.

Story Missions focus on fast-paced, co-op gameplay, as well as story, cinematics, and cutscenes that expand the world of Overwatch. Story Missions tell a linear narrative about the heroes of Overwatch reuniting and battling the new Null Sector threat, pushing the story of Overwatch forward for the first time since our original game released. These mi...

Starwatch: Galactic Rescue is live, and the fight for the universe is on! Have you been fighting with the Watchers in their rescue mission, or do you serve the Infinite Empire? Only time will tell which side prevails, but in the meantime, we’d like to share how the team built this new world within Overwatch.

Building a New World

Starwatch takes place among the planets and stars, so ensuring we could deliver an environment that felt like a space opera was important. The first step was to design the interior of a starship. With the launch of Overwatch 2, we removed Assault (2CP) maps from the core game mode lineup—meaning there are some amazing maps that aren't currently being used in game—and we saw this opportunity to bring back Horizon: Lunar Colony.

Horizon: Lunar Colony was a perfect fit because it already has a very sci-fi fee...

The Infinite Empire rules the galaxy with an iron grip, and all hope would be lost if not for a small band of rebels known as the Watchers, who fight for freedom across the stars. Log on starting May 9 for Starwatch: Galactic Rescue, an epic one-of-a-kind space event.

Starwatch: Galactic Rescue is Overwatch 2’s first-ever PVP/PVE hybrid event. Two teams face off on a four-point Assault match staged on the Infinite Galactrius, a starship transformed from the Horizon Lunar Colony Assault map. The Watchers, led by Bonebreaker Doomfist, will attack against the defending Infinite Empire.

Choose your side and join the fight

When you queue, you’ll choose to ally with the Watcher’s rebellion or join the Infinite Empire’s command. If your loyalties lie elsewhere, queue as a Mercenary to get into the next mission q...

Need to learn new skills for your favorite hero? Want to see what the highest ranks of Overwatch 2 look like? Love watching “Mystery Heroes Tuesdays” and all the chaos that comes with it? The best place for watching Overwatch 2 can be found with your favorite Twitch content creators. And starting tomorrow, you’ll have another reason to tune in, as we’ll have new drops available for everyone to earn!

Running from May 9 to May 22, when you watch two hours of any Overwatch 2 content on Twitch, you will earn the Tool Box spray for Wrecking Ball. Watch three more hours to earn the new Toolbox Souvenir to equip for your favorite hero.

Earning Twitch drops for Overwatch 2 is easy! Simply connect your Battle.net account with your Twitch account, then tune into any eligible channel in the Overwatch 2 category on Twitch. Remember, when you earn any drops, you must claim them at ...

Last Director's Take, we talked about the state of Lifeweaver and the changes that we were making to the hero in order to strengthen him. They had a positive effect but didn't do nearly as much as we had hoped. We're going to continue that topic again this week. I'd like to look at what some of those changes accomplished, what we think he's missing, and some possible solutions we're looking at for the hero.

Over the last few weeks, we've made a number of buffs, tweaks, and modifications to Lifeweaver. In short, we modified his control scheme, making it more fluid and intuitive, and we buffed him across several different categories. We upped his healing ammo capacity, tightened the spread on his weapon, and buffed his ult. We saw a lift in his win rate across the game. At the lowest skill tiers, it was hovering around 45% but quickly dropped off at higher skill ratings.

The effects we thought these changes would have were difficult to work through since the...

Heroes across the galaxy will converge in our next open community tournament! Gather your friends, practice your best heroes, and sign up for our single-elimination tournament taking place on May 10 and 11!

The Starwatch Open will be a 2-day single-elimination tournament for PC players featuring a $20,000 prize pool. We’ll be broadcasting the semifinals and finals on our PlayOverwatch Twitch Channel, along with a fun exhibition game featuring the new Starwatch PVP game mode.

Want to compete? Sign-ups are open to the entire community, so gather your team and get registered here by May 7 (11:59 PM PDT): ...

During our Twitch Makes Overwatch livestream last December, developers teamed up with the community to think up one of the most exaggerated concepts for an Overwatch 2 map ever. Senior game director Aaron Keller, art director Dion Rogers, and community manager Andy Belford all followed your suggestions to build a one-of-a-kind, non-canon Control map that’s surely a death trap for nearly every Overwatch hero. Thus, the underwater base Talon was born, featuring jump pads and an elevator that allows players to choose up to five different ways to approach the control point. Now, at long last, the community will be able to play this Talantis map for a limited time today through May 8.

All Overwatch 2 maps begin with a “blockout”, which builds from basic shapes to establish a general play style and theme. The blockout for Talantis was created in a span of a few hours while live on stream, with Twitch viewers commenting on features they wanted to see added to the map. It...

Lifeweaver came out last week and landed with quite a splash. There was a lot of conversation about his abilities, his background, and let's be honest here, his… hotness. Let's go into detail about where we think he's at, what we're going to do with him going forward, and his effect on our philosophy on heroes and how we release them.

Currently, Lifeweaver is performing in multiple variations in Quickplay while players are learning the new hero. We saw Lifeweaver's win rate climb faster than other heroes when they launched, perhaps due to the surprising piece of data that his win rate is much higher for low-skill players than it is for high-skill players. Lifeweaver is a complex hero, and he has an amazing kit with abilities that can have a high impact in a match. However, these factors can make it harder to balance a hero at launch. Could there be aspects of his kit, like the slow while charging heal, that punish high-skill players? Could the auto-aim on his heal...

Looking back, we saw many changes go into Season Three to minimize role deltas in matches, and we wanted to take a look at the results we saw following the change. Let’s jump into the details with Senior Software Engineer Morgan Maddren and Lead Meta Designer Scott Mercer.

Season Three Role Delta Results

Role delta is something we’ve talked about previously on matchmaking blogs as well as the ...

We’re back with another update to Defense Matrix, our ongoing initiative to bring a fair and friendly experience to Overwatch 2. This season, we’d like to share our current initiatives, our future goals, and how we can use your help to combat cheating and disruptive behavior in-game.

Since our last update, we've been taking time to better define our goals to deliver on our promise to provide the most fun and fair experience in Overwatch 2 as possible. Part of this goal is to establish guiding principles that help us make those decisions, and we also want to encourage you to adopt those principles when you play Overwatch 2!

Fair is Fun

Our first guiding principle, “Fair is fun,” comes from our belief that cheating is never okay in Overwatch 2. Playing with cheaters is frustrating, robbing everyone of a fun and fair match. Our team will never stop working to identify and protect against cheats, and we’d like to share how you can help!

Repor...

Calling all behatted Bastion buffs, bearded Soldier: 76 aficionados, and other fans of Overwatch 2’s colorful heroes: It’s time to rep your main on Battle.net. A fresh batch of avatars has just arrived in the desktop app, so you can finally update that Wrecking Ball icon to show off his new pair of delightful little goggles to your entire friends list. Check out the full roster of current heroes, each sporting their sleek, future-forward new looks!

Want to change yours? Just boot up the Battle.net desktop app, click your current avatar (located in the top-right corner, above the friends list), select the Overwatch 2 logo from the drop-down list, and take your pick.