Creativity is the essence of discovery: Overwatch 2 Beta Statistical Analysis
Heroes of Overwatch, welcome back!
The second Overwatch 2 beta has ended, and that means it’s time to talk data–again! In our previous beta statistics blog, we took you behind the scenes to learn more about Overwatch data and statistics like weighted usage rate, unmirrored win rate, and more. This data, along with healthy amounts of player feedback, user research, internal discussion, and lots and lots of gameplay are the cornerstones of the hero balance process. In this blog, we’ll be walking back down that same road to show how we used these metrics to inform decisions that were made during the second beta.
The highlight of the second beta was, of course, Junker Queen. The design team wanted to ensure that she was just as powerful as the Queen we saw in her cinematic, but not so powerful that she dominated the entire beta. However, Queen wasn’t our only focus; this beta began with a smorgasbord of hero changes, including a full reimagining of the damage role passive. Finally, this beta was opened to console players, which meant ensuring that no hero was over or under tuned on all platforms was a chief concern.
CONSOLE JOINS THE FRAY
GAUGING POPULARITY AND POWER
THE QUEEN REIGNS SUPREME
IT'S NORBIN' TIME
DATA, DESIGN, AND COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
Before we get too deep into the analysis, let’s talk about the PC versus Console balance split. Overwatch finds itself in a similar situation to other cross-platform titles, where we have a playerbase that enjoys our game on many platforms and with many different input control schemes. This can–and does–create different strategies that work better with either a controller or a mouse and keyboard. While there were differences in win rates for particular heroes on console versus PC, we
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