by Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller has been doing something pretty cool lately: talking about Overwatch 2. Blizzard’s de facto voice on Overwatch matters lately has made it a goal to communicate with players more often about the current state of the game, and man is on a roll. So far in his “Director’s Take” series, Keller has written about ranked woes (opens in a new tab)the future of arcade mode and the failed experiment of map pools (opens in a new tab).
It’s refreshing to see so much transparency from Overwatch’s top circles on topics that matter most to everyday gamers, and today’s blog on win rates and champion popularity (opens in a new tab) is certainly his most instructive yet.
Right off the bat, Keller shares some interesting insights about Overwatch 2’s ranked meta in the opening weeks of Season 3. For example, “most supports are viable at almost any skill level,” something that didn’t seem very true in Season 1. It also confirms one a change that players noticed when browsing semi-reliable stat aggregation sites like Overbuff (opens in a new tab): Brigitte has a moment now.
“Brigitte has really popped up this season and has the highest win rate at almost all skill levels except for the Top 500 where Zen takes the lead, with the two averaging nearly 55% win rate,” said Keller. “At the other end of the spectrum are Kiriko and Moira at around 45%.
While you might think that those who play a competitive shooter, especially its most competitive mode, would gravitate towards the champions with the highest win rate, Keller says that’s not the case (names in bold):
“When we look at who is actually played, they are the best midfielders Ana, KirikoAND Grace for almost all skill levels up to Silver and Bronze, where Moira is quite a pick.
“This shows that the champs with the highest win rate aren’t always the most played champs.”
This shows that the champs with the highest win rate aren’t always the most played champs.
Aaron Keller
I find it fascinating. We know that in a competitive environment like Ranked Overwatch, it can feel like sticking to the consensus month meta is all that matters. We also know that anecdotally, it can seem like teammates choose champions based on their preference, not necessarily what’s best for the team’s lineup, so it’s interesting to see how the official numbers back that up. Keller notes that it’s “counterintuitive” that Kiriko is so popular despite winning less frequently, and on the other hand, Briggite consistently wins with far less presence.
There are several possible conclusions from this. I guess this suggests that even at high levels of play, Overwatch players don’t like to feel locked in by a small pool of “top” heroes. People like to play their favorite heroes, and they’re really unlikely to switch (opens in a new tab) to a character they don’t like.
As Keller mentions, win/pick ratio differences can relate to other factors that aren’t directly compared here, such as overall team composition or map differences. Either way, Keller says the team “tends to think that highly skilled players still pick some champions for good reasons” and is gathering additional data to investigate. “If it proves fruitful, expect more information about it.”
Anyway, I think the numbers indicate that there is a significant portion of the Overwatch 2 community (probably the majority) for whom the meta is not important. And if most players don’t care about the meta, how much should Blizzard care?
Maybe it comes down to balancing enough so that the “best” champions are only the best by a few percentage points. We’ve certainly heard of when support wasn’t getting enough love (opens in a new tab) and Sojourn plunged everyone into oblivion in one fell swoop. It’s safe to say that players want every champion to be viable so that their favorites never go out of style, and based on this data, that might be enough.
