Happy Lunar New Year! We’re changing it up a bit this year by bringing back fan-favorite mode, Roadhog's Catch-a-mari, with a New Year twist. Collect adorable Lunar Pachi by eliminating your opponents to earn LNY cosmetics!
The new functionality for Praise is intended to be a quick way to celebrate a team kill or an incredible shot without needing to use voice chat. We won't judge you if you use it sarcastically too, like when your teammate fat fingers their ult in spawn. We didn't want to change your Comms Wheel customizations when we added Praise, so instead of replacing something on the wheel that you might have added years ago, we made the Comms Wheel function almost identically to the Ping Wheel. Keep in mind that you can revert the Comms Wheel to its original functionality by changing a single setting! Alongside our commitment to expanding the game's story, our narrative and sound teams have been working hard to record more great voice lines that let you express your personality through our heroes. We'll continue to expand on your communication options by adding more contextual lines over time.
While almost all recent development on this feature was focused on providing accurate information about the new heroes, our efforts to help explain the game's most nuanced mechanics have continued here with the addition of new Keywords. If you haven't used this system much, keep in mind that all of the Keyword definitions can be viewed in a match or in the Practice Range when hovering over an ability!
Updated Look and Feel
Notification Hub
Loot Box Updates
Player Title Updates
Options Updates
Clash Removed
As we move into 2026, the team is carefully looking at what maps and modes provide players with the best long term experience in Overwatch. We want to lean into the content that players engage with the most while also providing a high level of gameplay variety. After all, variety in our maps and modes is a core pillar on our design team, and that will never change. It is also important that the variety we offer resonates with our players. Unfortunately, even after some adjustment, Clash hasn't been hitting the mark. We love the maps that we made for Clash. They will remain in Stadium and we still may see them return in the future. We have some amazing new maps lined up for the next year and our reworks will continue...and get bigger. Redesigns that completely change how certain areas of our maps play are coming soon. As we look into the future of our game, we will continue to curate our map roster in the ways we feel offer the best experience. We look forward to sharing more news about all the upcoming maps and modes coming to Overwatch.
Now at the helm of Talon, Vendetta has begun her reign with a bang: laying siege to Watchpoint: Gibraltar with a vengeance. She will leave no one to stand in the way of her new empire.... Vendetta’s attack has caused severe damage to the Watchpoint. Some layout tweaks have been made throughout the map Area 1:
Area 2:
Area 3:
With Vendetta in charge of Talon, our Italy maps have seen some changes. Banners signifying the glory of La Lupa's new empire have been raised across the city's various neighborhoods, and a throne fitting of her strength has been raised in Rialto.
We quickly realized this design choice was a mistake when we heard the player feedback that the leaderboard should prioritize rank much more highly than it did at Season 20 launch, and this choice meant that the highest ranked players were often donating a considerable amount of Challenger Score in their games to lower ranked players. This change means that we can tune the highest ranks to gain considerably more Challenger Score and ensures that only the highest ranked players benefit from these rewards. These increased payouts for the highest ranks now account for both the difficulty of maintaining these ranks and the increased queue times associated with these ranks.
Since we redistributed the Ranks in Season 18 to allow for more players at our highest Ranks (Master, Grandmaster, Champion) we agree with the community feedback that Diamond is not prestigious enough for the leaderboard.
This change means that 250 total wins in Competitive Play are required to appear in Top 500 Challenger instead of 750. With Challenger Score as a requirement, the 750 win requirement was unnecessarily high.
We hope these updates show our commitment to updating this system based on player feedback, but this is also a good time to address some of the feedback we've heard that probably isn't a viable path for us today. We've heard some of our highest rank players request that we decay ranks at the start of each season like we did before the launch of Overwatch 2. Before Season 9 of Overwatch 2, Rank and MMR were not directly linked and could diverge considerably. After Season 9, we committed to Rank and MMR being linked in the Core game because we believe showing you the most accurate representation of your skill is important to the competitive integrity of the system. That's still the case today, and it's why the type of pseudo-Rank decay that was applied to high rank players at that time (artificially displaying them at a lower SR than their MMR) is not an option for us today. If we used that type of decay today, we'd be lowering the MMR of all of the highest ranked players every season. This has a lot of knock on effects, but it would be effectively creating more severe versions of the Rank Resets we do every 3 seasons today, but only for players above a specified MMR. We see this as undesirable because of the negative impact it would have on match quality every season for our highest ranked players. We appreciate all of your feedback about this feature so far and we'll continue to listen for ways we can improve it going forward.
The role passive system has undergone a significant revision, introducing multiple categorized passives within each role. Heroes are now assigned to a subcategory within their role, granting them a new passive that is more closely aligned with their intended playstyle. This approach aims to enhance gameplay depth and role identity for each hero.
Looking ahead, we will closely monitor the effectiveness of this new system. Our ongoing plan includes evaluating its impact and making future adjustments as needed. This could involve balancing individual subroles, reassigning heroes to different subroles, or even introducing entirely new subroles to better support the evolving needs of the game.
With the addition of Sub Role Passives, several existing perks now overlap in functionality. We’ve replaced perks in these cases and continued to iterate on others to improve overall perk choices and balance.
D.Va’s combined mobility, defensive tools, and health pool make her overly durable and difficult to punish. Reducing her base health increases opportunities to force her out of mech.
Kinetic Bandolier – Minor Perk
Protective Barrier – Major Perk (6v6)
Charged Javelin – Major Perk
Barrier Re-Charge – Minor Perk
Crusader’s Resolve – Minor Perk
Reduced consistency on Roadhog’s Chain Hook one-shot has lowered his overall effectiveness compared to other tanks. Increasing Take a Breather’s duration and Pulled Pork’s overhealth improves his survivability and supports more aggressive play.
Take a Breather (5v5)
Pulled Pork – Major Perk
Sigma’s ability cycling can make him difficult to break through. Reducing his barrier health and Hyper Regeneration’s effectiveness creates more opportunities to pressure him.
Experimental Barrier
Hyper Regeneration – Minor Perk
Barrier Toss – Minor Perk
Electric Charge – Minor Perk
Pack Rat – Minor Perk
Multi-Ball – Minor Perk
Zarya’s damage at high energy can be extremely high. Reducing her maximum primary fire damage lowers her effectiveness in these situations, while adjusting her perks helps balance her overall power.
Particle Cannon
Energy Converter – Minor Perk
Spotter – Minor Perk
Energy Lance – Major Perk
Extra Oomph – Major Perk
Fan the Flames
Inferno Rush
Dancing Blaze
Sidewinder – Minor Perk
Double-Barreled – Minor Perk
Reducing Combat Roll’s cooldown improves Cassidy’s mobility and survivability, giving him more options in close-range engagements while slightly increasing his damage output.
Combat Roll
Gun Slingin’ – Major Perk
Rollin’ Round-Up – Major Perk
Focused Rush – Minor Perk
Hunter’s Instinct – Minor Perk
Relentless Barrage – Minor Perk
Rising Winds – Major Perk
Swift Lunge – Minor Perk
Dragon Fury – Minor Perk
Frost Arrow – Major Perk
Sky Spy – Major Perk
Rocket Salvo – Major Perk
Shadow Step
Tactical Salvo – Minor Perk
Recycled Pulse Munitions – Minor Perk
Helix Propulsion – Minor Perk
With the introduction of the Recon Sub Role Passive, Sombra’s Opportunist has been updated to avoid overlap. Revealing enemy ultimate status on nameplates provides unique information that supports Sombra’s fantasy.
Opportunist
Healthy Hacker – Major Perk
High-Speed Bandwidth – Major Perk
Fully Loaded – Minor Perk
Pre-Heated – Minor Perk
Tracer’s smaller projectile size has reduced her consistency against mobile targets. Restoring the global projectile size and slightly lowering damage improves reliability while keeping her overall lethality in check.
Pulse Pistols
Chronal Dash – Minor Perk
Flashback – Major Perk
Blink Packs – Major Perk
Vendetta has a high death rate but can still be difficult to fight against when trading effectively. Adjusting her armor and increasing Soaring Slice’s cooldown encourages more deliberate engagement choices while maintaining her ability to survive in close combat.
Soaring Slice
Extra Edge – Minor Perk
Relentless – Major Perk
Swift Vengeance – Major Perk
Seeker Mine – Major Perk
Escape Plan – Major Perk
Widow’s Bite – Major Perk
Assault Burst – Minor Perk
Biotic Reloader – Minor Perk
Expanded Field – Minor Perk
Automated Healing – Major Perk
Recent changes have increased Illari’s damage output to solidify her weapon-focused strengths. These adjustments reduce her mobility and healing output to maintain balance within her kit.
Solar Rifle – Secondary Fire
Outburst
Solar Flare – Major Perk
Kiriko’s healing can feel inconsistent for allies at range or moving quickly. Increasing Healing Ofuda’s projectile speed improves reliability while retaining its identity.
Swift Step previously gave Kiriko multiple self-cleansing options, making her difficult to eliminate. Removing the cleanse on Swift Step preserves its mobility value while improving counterplay.
Healing Ofuda
Swift Step
Foxtrot – Major Perk
Increasing Tree of Life’s overhealing conversion improves the reliability of its overhealth gain.
Tree of Life
Lifeweaving – Minor Perk
Cleansing Grasp – Minor Perk
Petal Power – Major Perk
Petal Protection – Minor Perk
Dashing Escape – Minor Perk
Sow the Seed – Major Perk
With the introduction of the Medic Sub Role Passive, Mercy’s Sympathetic Recovery has been replaced with Swift Recovery, which restores faster health regeneration.
Sympathetic Recovery – Passive
Swift Recovery - Passive
Destruction’s Divide – Minor Perk
Wuyang continues to have high healing alongside strong survivability and damage output. Reducing his passive healing lowers his overall sustain while preserving his healing when actively using Beam.
Restorative Stream
Transcendent Condemnation – Minor Perk
Discordant Repair – Minor Perk
With the Hero Builder, making a build in Stadium is much more accessible. The Hero Builder will give you the best recommendations, based on constantly updating pick rate and win rate data of all items in the context of your current build. It'll also show you multiple build paths at the beginning of the match, so you can explore and try out new builds and playstyles. For new players just trying out Stadium or experienced players who want to explore new builds or see what the data says about their favorite build, the Hero Builder should improve your Stadium Building experience. For new and reworked heroes, there will be a short period where there won't be sufficient data to show recommendations based on live data, so during that period we will be displaying manually inputted recommendations that may be lower quality.
Vendetta expands her conquest into the Stadium.
Continuum - Power
Rising Rampage - Power
Overloaded Strike - Power
Skycut - Power
Defiance Core - Power
Furious Friction - Power
Riposte - Power
Cyclone Charge - Power
Double Dash - Power
Exalted Empress - Power
Up and Over - Power
Cataclisma - Power
Crater Creator - Rare Weapon Hero Item
Scaled Steel - Epic Weapon Hero Item
Chimera Cross - Rare Ability Hero Item
Warrior's Shout - Rare Ability Hero Item
Talon Trinket - Rare Ability Hero Item
Onslaught Amplifier - Epic Ability Hero Item
Marzia's Mastery - Epic Ability Hero Item
Ricochet Razor - Epic Ability Hero Item
Colosseo Coin - Rare Survival Hero Item
Braced Blade - Rare Survival Hero Item
Chargeguard - Rare Survival Hero Item
Duelist's Draught - Epic Survival Hero Item
Antonio's Lesson - Epic Survival Hero Item
Vicious Vow - Epic Survival Hero Item
The following Powers have been removed:
The following Items have been removed:
Slow Burn - Power
Fire at My Fingertips - Power
Controlled Boom - Power
Stacked Sticks - Power
What in Tarnation!? - Power
PinB.O.B. - Power
Calamity - Power
Out With a Bang - Power
Aero-Dynam-ite - Rare Weapon Hero Item
Maxed Mag - Epic Weapon Hero Item
B.O.B Wire Defense - Epic Ability Hero Item
Incendiary Blastpaper - Epic Ability Hero Item
Silver Spurs - Rare Survival Hero Item
Build-A-Blast Buckshot - Epic Survival Hero Item
Talon ships lurk beneath the canals of Serenza in this new Push map created for Stadium.
We're testing a format change in Competitive that we heard suggested frequently during the revert from the Best of 5 format. This change should be a good middle ground, keeping the faster power progression so your builds come online faster while maintaining the Bo7 format that allows for more time to adapt to the enemy and create memorable comebacks. We also think this has the ability to increase comeback potential, particularly in Round 2. Previously, falling behind in Round 1 meant that Round 2 will feel like a repeat of Round 1, but with the enemy having more items, since early on you often don't have enough currency to meaningfully change your build. However, being able to select a Power means being able to get a large power spike in your build and more tools to adapt and fight back with in the pivotal early rounds, even when behind. We'll be keeping a close eye on this change, so let us know your feedback!
This change is part of an effort to reduce the use of Lava for gameplay clarity. With Ignition Burst shifting to a burn effect on Boosters, D.Va still retains her ability to deal damage and control space through mobility, while giving Lava a clearer home elsewhere. This keeps Booster oriented builds impactful without overlapping too heavily with other heroes’ signature mechanics.
Ignition Burst - Power
Doomfist has been struggling in Stadium, with the lowest Win Rate among tanks. We're buffing his survival oriented powers and some mobility options to help him scale his survivability into the late game without increasing his vertical burst.
Seismic Rally - Power
Block Party - Power
Rising Uppercut - Power
Asteroid Smash - Power
Quickcharger - Epic Ability Hero Item
These changes focus on making Orisa’s ability-focused builds feel more fluid and rewarding, especially in high-tempo fights. Hot Rotate-O now leans into Overheat as a moment of momentum rather than punishment, letting Orisa immediately re-engage with Javelin Spin. Shield Divergence has been adjusted to be faster and more reliable in frontline situations, reducing friction when reacting under pressure. Finally, 3D-Printed Lance adds more cooldown interplay to Energy Javelin, encouraging more active and aggressive ability usage instead of holding tools defensively. Overall, the goal is to make Orisa feel smoother, snappier, and more decisive when cycling her kit.
Hot Rotate-O - Power
Shield Divergence - Power
3D-Printed Lance - Epic Ability Hero Item
Reinhardt's Fire Strike centric builds have been performing poorly. We're adding some more power there as well as sharpening the niche of the build so that there are clearer situations to opt for the build.
Magma Strike - Power
Blazing Blitz - Power
Chimera Maw - Epic Ability Hero Item
These updates are aimed at pushing Sigma further into a tempo-controlling tank who rewards precision and smart ability timing rather than raw damage stacking. We’re adding more synergy around Accretion to encourage accurate play and give Sigma clearer moments of payoff through healing, cooldown reduction, and team value. Event Horizon expands Kinetic Grasp into a more supportive, frontline-anchoring tool, allowing Sigma to share some of his durability when he commits. At the same time, Apogee Alignment’s damage has been toned down to keep Hypersphere from overshadowing the rest of his kit. Overall, this pass shifts power away from passive damage and into deliberate ability interactions that better define Sigma’s identity in Stadium.
Mass Driver - Power
Event Horizon - Power
Singularity - Power
Apogee Alignment - Power
Winston has been getting a little too comfortable chaining jumps and slams with very little risk, so this update reins in some of that nonstop airtime. Primal Slam now fully commits Winston by resetting Jump Pack to max cooldown, making the decision to slam a real “all in” moment instead of a free combo extender. On the item side, Premium Peanut Butter was punching far above its weight for a Rare item, giving too much durability too early, so it’s moving up to Epic with stats and cost to match. Meanwhile, S. PaceArmor is coming back down to Rare to better support early survivability without letting Winston feel unbreakable. Overall, this keeps rampaging Winston scary, but asks him to think twice before bouncing.
Primal Slam - Power
Premium Peanut Butter - Rare Survival Item
S. PaceArmor - Epic Survival Item
We overshot with previous buffs to Freja, who is a hero that can feel particularly frustrating to play against due to her high burst and mobility, especially in Stadium. We're pulling back the vertical damage of her two most popular builds to help give players more of a window to react to her.
Lille Fælde - Power
So Cooked - Power
Volley à Deux - Power
Genji’s deflect-focused playstyle wasn’t quite delivering on the fantasy of turning enemy fire back into real pressure. These updates lean harder into that identity by making deflected projectiles significantly faster and extending the window where Genji can safely play around Deflect (Watch out Pharah!). Sacred Shuriken further supports this direction by speeding up his primary fire, helping Genji feel more fluid and threatening when weaving between aggression and defense. The goal is to reward sharp timing and positioning, and to make successful deflect moments feel decisive without pushing Genji into pure burst territory.
Deflect-o-bot - Power
Sacred Shuriken - Power
Death Step has always been about giving Reaper more control over how and when he commits. Allowing Death Blossom to be canceled after engaging with Shadow Step gives Reaper a much-needed escape hatch, letting skilled players disengage when things go sideways instead of going all in every time. This change is aimed at raising the skill expression of the combo, rewarding good judgment and timing rather than blind commitment to the spin.
Death Step - Power
Sojourn’s builds have been feeling a little too expensive for how quickly Stadium matches move, especially when trying to piece together early and mid game power spikes. Across these weapon, ability, and survival items, we’re lowering costs to smooth out her build progression and reduce the friction of committing to specific playstyles. The goal here is simple: get Sojourn online sooner, let her experiment with more item paths, and make sure she’s spending more time sliding, shooting, and railgunning than staring at the Armory wondering where all her currency went.
Espresso Shots - Rare Weapon Item
Murphy's Motor Module - Epic Weapon Item
Shah-Mat Strategem - Epic Weapon Item
CAF Calibrator - Rare Ability Item
Afterburners - Rare Survival Item
Rocket-Powered Javelin - Rare Weapon Item
We're adding some power to Lucio's lesser picked options as well as compensating for an earlier nerf to Soundwave in the core game in a previous patch.
Reverb - Power
Signature Shift - Power
Radio Edit - Power
Hip Hop - Epic Survival Hero Item
Mercy's Damage Boost has always been amplified in effectiveness in Stadium due to stacking multiplicatively with stats like Weapon Power and the increased currency gain, so we're lowering the base Damage Boost effectiveness to weaken Mercy's pocketing capabilities. We're also buffing her Pistol oriented build due to its low pick rate, including some QoL to make it easier to manage the Pistol buffs and a small rework to Equivalent Exchange to give it a more pointed niche. We'll be continuing to find ways to improve some of Mercy's lower picked options.
General
Threads of Fate - Power
Tethered Tourniquet - Power
Equivalent Exchange - Power
Battle Medic - Power
Celestial Clip - Epic Weapon Hero Item
Moira has remained at a middling Win Rate for most of Stadium's lifespan, but is by far the most picked Support. We're removing some power from her most popular build to reduce her consistency and adding some more power to her less popular options.
General
Cross Orbal - Power
Chain Grasp - Power
Scientific Deathod - Power
This update is intended to create more interesting decision points and payoff moments for Zenyatta’s Discord focused builds, especially during his ultimate. By better aligning power spikes with active Discord application, Zenyatta can convert strong orb management into meaningful impact during key fight windows, making Transcendence moments feel more dynamic and rewarding rather than purely reactive.
Orb of Perception - Epic Weapon Item
Electrolytes - Common Survival General Item
Running Shoes - Common Survival General Item
Reflex Coating - Common Survival General Item
Ballistic Buffer - Common Survival General Item
Repulsion Greaves - Rare Survival General Item
Iron Eyes - Rare Survival General Item
Bloodbound - Rare Survival General Item
MEKA-Z Series - Rare Survival General Item
Sundering Vial - Epic Survival General Item
Geneticist's Vial - Epic Survival General Item
Reinforced Titanium - Epic Survival General Item
Phantasmic Flux - Epic Survival General Item
Rüstung von Wilhelm - Epic Survival General Item
Crusader Hydraulics - Epic Survival General Item
Necrotic Repellant - Epic Gadget
Colossus Core - Epic Gadget
Our goal with these changes is to increase the usability of lesser used Survival items, and to ensure each one has a clear Counter niche. We've reworked some of the least picked items to fill the gaps of missing Counter niches, such as introducing Overhealth Reduction in our new Sundering Vial item.
patch-2026-02-09