During today’s Overwatch Spotlight, Blizzard Entertainment unloaded a ton of new information for its live-service hero shooter. Game director Aaron Keller and the team shared what players can look forward to in 2026 from the world of Overwatch, and it’s a lot. For starters, the game is dropping the “2” from its name, meaning it’s just going to be called Overwatch moving forward. The next season is also just going to be Season 1, instead of Season 21. Between that and the name change, it’s clear Blizzard is trying to symbolize a fresh start for Overwatch.
Moving forward, Overwatch is going to tell a multi-faceted, fully connected story across the entire year. Players can expect a narrative arc with a set beginning, middle, and end, which runs from Season 1 through Season 6. Then, in 2027, it’ll start anew with Season 1. What will likely get fans really excited, though, is that Overwatch will release 10 Heroes over the course of the year, with five coming at the launch of Season 1 on February 10. This season, Overwatch will focus on The Reign of Talon, with a story arc adding motion comics, in-game events, new voice lines, animated hero trailers, and short stories throughout the season.
As for the first five new Heroes of the year, they are Domina (Tank), Emre (Damage), Mizuki (Support), Anran (Damage), and Jetpack Cat (Support). The addition of these five new characters is accompanied by new sub-roles for each main role of Tank, Damage, and Support. Tanks now consist of Bruiser, Initiator, and Stalwart, while Damage gets broken down into Sharpshooter, Flanker, Specialist, and Recon. Support sub-roles include Tactician, Medic, and Survivor. Each of these sub-roles has passives associated with them, ranging from light healing while airborne to a brief reload speed boost after eliminating an enemy.
The new Season 1 will also include Conquest, which is a five-week meta event where players will choose to fight for either Overwatch or Talon. Every week, each faction gets rewards based on mission completion and players can switch their allegiance after completing the current week’s faction pass. Rewards include loot boxes, voice lines, cosmetics, weapon charms, skins, and exclusive titles.
Other changes and additions to the game include a fresh take on UI/UX, a Praise feature that uses hero voiceover lines to provide positive feedback to other players, and more sound and music control settings while in the lobby. Later this year, players can expect to see Post-Match Accolades, a new system that will use full 3D hero models. Oh yeah, Overwatch will also head to Nintendo Switch 2 when Season 2 arrives.
Those looking forward to jumping back in can celebrate with the Hello Kitty & Friends collaboration running from February 10 to February 23. You read that right, as six new themed Hero skins will be added, from Juno as Hello Kitty to Widowmaker turning up as Kuromi.
