In May 2016, celebrated studio Blizzard launched its hero shooter, Overwatch. A month later, the game added a competitive mode, and it stayed relatively the same through Overwatch 2, its 2022 sequel. On Tuesday, Overwatch 2 will launch its new Stadium mode, which might be the biggest change to the game in almost nine years.
Despite the competitive format staying more or less the same, a lot has happened between Overwatch’s earliest days and the start of Stadium — dozens of metas, the great content drought, the shift to 5v5 with the launch of Overwatch 2, the addition of perks, plenty of novelty modes like mystery heroes and the lengthy list of player-made custom games. But for all those changes and options, Stadium is what Overwatch devs expect will change people’s play the most.
In group media interviews online, Game Director Aaron Keller said that if anyone has been waiting to try Overwatch or to come back to the game, Stadium is the time.
It’s an important test for the long-term outlook of Overwatch, coming four months after the launch of competing hero shooter Marvel Rivals, a game that recently passed 40 million players. Overwatch and its free-to-play evolution Overwatch 2 were the de facto hero shooters for most of the past decade, with the biggest competition coming from other shooters like Apex Legends and Valorant, which focused more on different shooter subgenres (battle royales and tactical shooters). But when Rivals launched with frenzied gameplay reminiscent of the gleefully frenetic days of early Overwatch, along with a surprisingly hefty roster of Marvel favorites, it gave players something newer and shinier to play.
The question was: How would Overwatch respond?
Stadium, which Keller noted has been in the works since before the launch of Overwatch 2, seems to be the answer. It takes the familiar Overwatch formula — two teams of players split across three different roles, playing heroes with unique abilities on objective-based maps — and shakes it all up and pumps it full of adrenaline.
Suddenly, Reinhardt isn’t just power-steering around a corner; he’s flying through the air. Ana is nano-boosting her entire team. And Mei transformed into a giant snowball rolling toward you.
At the same time, your team might have a Zarya launching herself when she bubbles your Ashe, who’s launching a mini-B.O.B. twice as often, while Kiriko gets invulnerability in her ultimate.
Stadium is all about cranking up everyone’s core abilities for new functionality and dramatically expanded customizability. It’s a game mode I expect will appeal to two types of players in particular: First, it’ll be a hit with people who really love particular heroes and want to be able to play them in every situation, choosing talents and items that allow them to adapt to their opponents. But second, it might also gain traction with people who like to think and tinker — people who want to theorycraft different builds for heroes and test them out against the competition. Overwatch’s core game modes can be challenging for those types of players due to the prevalence of counterswapping and the general lack of breaks in a match; Stadium offers some interesting alternatives.
Alongside quick play and competitive modes, Stadium was designed to be the third main pillar of gameplay — Keller said there’s a separate team of people and «a lot of resources» dedicated to Stadium mode.
I asked whether Stadium was designed to respond to a shift in player needs for Overwatch. Keller pointed to three player-specific desires the new mode wanted to address: more downtime, more strategy and a bigger emphasis on power fantasy. Stadium is a best-of-seven game mode where each round is an abbreviated version of other game modes like control or push — basically, a short-and-sweet burst of concentrated action that still abides by familiar rule sets. Between those rounds, players will get some breathing room to think about the enemy team’s composition and how to strategically build against it by acquiring new powers and «items» that enhance heroes’ abilities.
Stadium ditches hero swapping, instead encouraging players to build around their challenges. For example, heroes like Genji and D.Va can buy abilities that mitigate beam damage, something they traditionally struggle against. Similarly, flying heroes have traditionally countered Reinhardt. Still, Pharah and Echo players will have to be a little more careful knowing that a Reinhardt might just yeet himself in their direction, threatening to pin them against a wall — maybe with bonus explosive damage!
These mechanics mark Stadium as the latest and largest piece of evidence that Overwatch devs are moving away from the game’s focus on a carefully balanced experience and instead allowing players to more fully embrace the power fantasy of its heroes. Keller said the devs had pushed Stadium a lot further than other game modes, meaning the team took even more liberties when it came to cooking up new powers and upgrades for its roster of playable characters.
I’ll be trying out Stadium this week ahead of the season 16 launch next week. After covering Overwatch 2 since the beta in 2022, I’ve seen the game take steady but slow strides in healthy directions — though ones that fans may have slowly stopped following as the years have worn on. Stadium is poised to be a veritable leap, and I’m excited to see if it can live up to the hype it wants to inspire in current, returning and new players.
Stadium will launch in season 16 starting on April 22. The new mode will feature 17 heroes and nine maps, though devs said it will constantly evolve, with new heroes being added frequently.
