Overwatch 2 Season 9 arrives tomorrow with exciting core gameplay updates, a reworked Competitive game mode, and a season theme that will test the courage of even the bravest heroes as they face a dangerous threat of cosmic proportions. Get your friends together, queue up, and face the unknown that awaits you.

Competitive Play Updates

Thanks in part to your feedback, we’ve updated Competitive Play. Now more transparent than ever, the new Competitive Overview after every match provides clear insights into how your rank changes, including skill modifiers to help you understand your progress through the ranks. At the start of Season 9, we're doing a soft reset of everyone’s rank, giving everyone a fresh opportunity to climb higher while maintaining a standard in match quality. We’re also bringing placements back, which means your performance in these games substantially influences your initial rank placement.

For the truly daring, we're introducing ...

As many of you know, two weeks ago, there were a series of changes made to the Overwatch team, as well as other teams across Blizzard. Writing a public blog is difficult in the wake of these events. I want to express gratitude for the absolutely amazing people who worked on our game that are no longer on our team. I want the community to feel informed, and I want to convey our excitement about what is to come in Season 9. To be honest, it’s a lot to balance – but one of the things we’ve been most proud of is how we’ve kept lines of communication open between the team and our community, and we intend to continue that.

In that spirit, yesterday, we shared the exciting changes you are going to experience with Competitive starting in Season 9. I’d like to give a bit more ...

The newest season of Overwatch 2 is just around the corner, and with it comes some exciting changes. During our Overwatch 2: What’s Next Panel at BlizzCon 2023, we shared a sneak peek at some of the philosophy guiding many of the system changes coming this year: striving to make PvP gameplay more rewarding and fun and providing greater transparency for players in-game. We are introducing major changes to Competitive in the new season—from a new progression system to an all-new skill tier above Grand Master—as well as major gameplay changes to combat and hero survivability. Read for details on what you can expect for Overwatch 2 Season 9: Champions.

Updating the Competitive Experience

We’ve heard your feedback on Competitive Play over the last eight seasons, and we have some big updates coming that will give you the opportunity to build on your skills and see how you progress through the Competitive ranks. We built a better system that’s more acc...

The Defense Matrix Initiative is continuing to go strong in 2024. Previously, we shared our efforts to deter leavers in Overwatch 2, promote positive communication, and show the impact of your reports.  As we head into Season 9, we have more to share on our ongoing improvements to Endorsements and disruptive behavior.

Giving Endorsements More Impact

A common theme of feedback we’ve heard is to give Endorsements greater impact. In the last few seasons, we have already made significant steps to deliver on that. In the Season 7 midseason update, we implemented multiple bug fixes that prevented players from dropping their endorsement rating...