Blizzard Leisure has unveiled its Overwatch 2 Stadium roadmap for 2025, teasing among the heroes and options it plans so as to add in Season 17, Season 18, Season 19, and past.
The group behind the pioneering hero shooter dived into the small print of its new mode’s previous, current, and future with a Director’s Take weblog put up from sport director Aaron Keller. It comes with a shock summer time roadmap now that the mode has been accessible for a bit longer than every week, whereas additionally clarifying how the mode obtained its begin and the way it’s carried out to date.
Stadium Will get 7 New Heroes This Summer season
The Stadium rollout will press ahead when new Injury hero Freja joins its restricted roster with a mid-season patch for Season 16, nevertheless it’s Season 17 in June that can actually kick issues up a notch. Junkrat, Sigma, and Zenyatta will probably be added to the strategic multiplayer mode’s checklist of playable heroes presently, bringing alongside the Esperança Push map and Samoa Management map with them.
Blizzard will even use this time to additional flesh out how Stadium works by including in issues like Unranked Crossplay, new all-star rewards, customized video games, extra instance builds, and an possibility to avoid wasting and share builds. It’s unclear if all heroes and options will arrive in the beginning of Season 17 or if they are going to be launched all through the season.
Season 18 sends in Overwatch’s gorilla icon, Winston, as a playable character, with Sojourn and Brigitte set to hitch, too. Route 66 and London maps will even be part of the pool presently, as will a Payload Race sport mode, which comes with two new maps, a Stadium trials characteristic, and, lastly, the liberty to Endorse your teammates.
Blizzard’s transparency concerning Stadium’s improvement comes with the reassurance that “a number of new heroes,” each from Overwatch 2’s current roster and characters which have but to be revealed, will probably be added to the mode each season. For Season 19 and past, a brand new China map is on the way in which, with a Draft Mode characteristic, consumables, merchandise system tweaks, and extra additionally within the works.
How has Stadium Carried out so Far?
The Overwatch 2 group additionally shared Stadium stats that reveal how gamers have determined to spend their time with Blizzard’s new mode. It’s at the moment “eclipsing” Fast Play and Aggressive, making it Overwatch 2’s most performed mode with 2.3 million matches performed throughout 7.8 million hours throughout launch week alone.
It secures the prolonged sport mode’s stats at greater than double what was seen with Overwatch Basic’s launch week. Different fascinating stats crown Lucio as each the hero with the very best win fee and the bottom decide fee, whereas gamers have managed to spend 900 billion Stadium Money when selecting 206 million objects for his or her builds.
Keller’s Director’s Take touches on just a few vital particulars associated to the event of Stadium, too. One vital notice noticed the sport director confirming the mode has been in improvement earlier than Overwatch 2 launched. Although the group has touched on this timeline previously, his remark ought to assist squash prevailing fan theories that Stadium was born out of Blizzard’s need to compete with Marvel Rivals, which launched December 2024.
Keller says Blizzard will sustain the communication going ahead, promising to launch extra perception into Stadium subsequent week with an extra Director’s take. In the meantime, he additionally confirms that, whereas Stadium has entered the dialogue as a massively in style addition to Overwatch 2, Blizzard stays dedicated to sustaining different core experiences reminiscent of commonplace Fast Play and Aggressive choices.
“Earlier than signing off, I would prefer to reiterate the group’s dedication to the Core modes of Overwatch,” Keller clarified. “We’re nonetheless pouring as a lot time, vitality and fervour into these as we all the time have. Stadium is not competing for these assets: it’s giving us extra alternatives to ship Overwatch in a brand new, thrilling approach.
“We will not wait so that you can see what’s coming there, particularly Season 18. It will be a banger! Have enjoyable with Stadium and, as all the time, let’s make an amazing sport.”
Overwatch 2 introduced Stadium to gamers when Season 16 launched final week. It’s a part of Blizzard’s ongoing initiative to reinvigorate its participant base, which started with an all-encompassing Highlight presentation in February. It’s led to the return of loot bins and an improved Steam score as gamers have a good time what some really feel is the very best Overwatch expertise followers have seen in years.
Whereas we anticipate extra udpates, you’ll be able to try our information to be taught extra about how Stadium works. You may as well see our suggestions for the very best Tank Builds, DPS Builds, and Assist Builds.
Michael Cripe is a contract contributor with IGN. He is finest identified for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Make sure you give him a comply with on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
