Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller has been doing something pretty neat lately: talking about Overwatch 2. The man is doing well. In an earlier “Director’s Take” series, Keller wrote: Ranked (opens in new tab)Future of Arcade Mode, Failed Experiment map pool (opens in new tab).
It’s refreshing to see so much transparency from Overwatch’s top brass on the topics that matter most to everyday players, and it’s refreshing to see that today’s blog Win Rate and Hero Popularity (opens in new tab) Easily his brightest.
Soon, in the first few weeks of Season 3, Keller will share some interesting observations about Overwatch 2’s ranked meta. 1. He also confirms his one development that the player has noticed by looking at semi-reliable statistics aggregation sites such as: overbuff (opens in new tab): Bridget is waiting for a minute now.
“Bridget has been really strong this season, having the best win percentages in almost every skill tier, except for the top 500 led by Zen, both of which average around 55%,” said Keller. I’m here. “On the other end of the spectrum are Chirico and Moira, about 45%.”
You might think that competitive shooters, especially those who play the most competitive modes, would gravitate towards the hero with the highest win rate, but Keller says otherwise (names bolded by me) ).
“If you look at who’s actually being played, the top support is Anna, Kirikoand mercy Nearly every skill tier, down to Silver and Bronze, where Moira becomes quite the pick.
“This shows that the heroes with the highest win rates are not always the most played.”
This shows that the heroes with the highest win rates are not always the most played.
Aaron Keller
I find it fascinating. We know that in a competitive environment like Ranked Overwatch, sticking to the consensus-adopted moon meta seems all-important. Sometimes it feels like you’re choosing heroes based on your preferences, and we also know they’re not always the best for your team composition, so it’s nice to see the official numbers back that up. It’s interesting. Keller says it’s “counter-intuitive” that Kiriko is very popular despite winning less frequently, and that Bridget, on the other hand, always wins with a much lower presence.
From this, there are several possible points.I tend to think this suggests that Overwatch players don’t want to feel trapped in a small pool of “best” hero picks, even at high levels of play.People likes to play their favorite heroes, and in fact they rarely switch places (opens in new tab) To heroes they don’t like.
As Keller mentions, the disparity in win and pick rates may be related to other factors not directly compared here, such as overall team composition and map differences. According to Keller, the team “has a tendency to think that high-skilled players keep picking certain heroes for good reasons,” and is collecting additional metrics to investigate this. “If it’s fruitful, expect to hear more about it.”
Either way, I think the numbers show that a significant portion (perhaps the majority) of the Overwatch 2 community doesn’t care about the meta. And if most players don’t care about the meta, how much should Blizzard care?
Maybe it comes down to keeping things balanced so that the “best” heroes are only the best by a few percent. (opens in new tab) And Sojourn drove everyone into oblivion with a single blow. It’s safe to say that players care about all heroes being viable so their favorite heroes don’t become obsolete. Based on this data, that might be enough.
