Our first Overwatch 2 PvP Beta has ended! We’ve been both humbled and inspired by the amount of interest and enthusiasm everyone has shown for Overwatch 2, and we can’t wait to share more with you about what comes next. Save the date for an Overwatch 2 Event on June 16!

In the meantime, as we wrap up this first testing phase, our Overwatch 2 Game Director, Aaron Keller, wanted to share a few words on Team 4’s behalf:

The Overwatch Team would like to take a moment to convey a heartfelt thank you to all the players that took part in our first beta. It was so exciting to see our community playing our game. The enthusiasm for this game and this universe means so much to us, it always has, and it always will.

Overwatch as a world, as a universe, is deeply personal to the team; something that we pour our time, creative energies and passion into. It can be scary putting something that means so much to you out there for other people to lo...

A renewed interest and excitement for the support role, improved queue times, improved survivability for support heroes, behind-the-scenes testing of Moira and Mercy, and thoughts around historical “shield-breaker” heroes are top of mind for our team as we reflect on the second week of the PvP Beta.  

Supports 

We’ve been closely monitoring the performance of the support role following last week’s balance patch that saw improvements for Baptiste, adjustments for Ana, and the introduction of a montage-worthy new passive ability for Zenyatta.  

As is often the case when we increase effective health for a hero, Zenyatta saw all-around improvements in performance over the weekend. Even with a higher pick rate, we saw our resident Omnic monk’s win rate improve by 5%, putting him in a healthy—albeit slightly strong—position. Perhaps not as surprising, the additional 25 shield health resulted in a 7% reduction in his death rate, with a...

Throughout week one of our first Technical Beta for Overwatch 2, our team has been galvanized by all the enthusiasm and positive energy from so many participating players. We’re carefully listening to your feedback during this Beta test. As we committed to more regular communication with our players, we plan to share a weekly update with you about what we’re learning and how that impacts our development plans. For this week's update, we have four main topics to cover. 

Progress on Beta 1 Goals  
The main goals for our first Beta were to test our shift to 5v5, the new maps and Push game mode, overall balance, and build and server stability. We believe 5v5 is a significant adjustment for players, and we have been happy to hear consistent and positive feedback about players having more fun, feeling a greater sense of impact in their matches, and enjoying a faster pace of combat and engagements. While we will continue to adjust the rules of Push, pla...