Blizzard Entertainment announced Overwatch 2 The 2025 Stadium Roadmap will tease some of the heroes and features that are expected to add Season 17, Season 18, Season 19 and more.
The team behind the pioneering hero shooter dived into the past, present and future details of the new mode in a director’s take blog post from game director Aaron Keller. It comes with a surprising summer roadmap as it is available a little over a week, while also clarifying how the mode will be launched and how it will run so far.
Stadium will acquire seven new heroes this summer
The stadium rollout will push forward as new damage hero Freja joins the limited roster in the midseason patch of season 16, but it’s Season 17 on June 17th and actually starts things. Junkrat, Sigma and Zenyatta will be added to the list of playable heroes in strategic multiplayer modes at this point, introducing the Esperança push map and the Samoa control map.
Blizzard uses this time to further embody how the stadium works by adding unranked cross-play, new All-Star rewards, custom games, additional sample builds, and options to save and share builds. It is unclear whether all the heroes and features will arrive at the start of Season 17 or will be released during the season.
Season 18 will send Overwatch gorilla icon Winston as a playable character, with Sojourn and Brigitte also taking part. Route 66 and the London Map will also join the pool at this point. It comes with two new maps, a stadium trial feature, and a payload racing game mode that comes with freedom to support your teammates at the end.
Blizzard’s transparency regarding the development of Stadium has guaranteed that “multiple new heroes” will be added to every season mode, both from the existing roster of Overwatch 2 and from characters that have not yet been revealed. From Season 19 onwards, new China maps are ongoing, including draft mode features, consumables and item system adjustments.
How have you played the stadium so far?
The Overwatch two teams also shared stadium statistics, revealing how players decided to spend time in Blizzard’s new mode. Currently, it’s “e-clip” quick play and competitive, fast play, which means it’s overwatching the most played mode of 2.3 million matches over 7.8 million hours in release week alone.
It’s more than double what you saw in Overwatch Classic’s Launch Week, ensuring long game mode stats. Other interesting stats have crowned Lucio as a hero with the highest win rate and lowest pick rate, but players were able to spend 900 million stadiums of cash in selecting 206 million items for their builds.
He also addresses some important details related to the development of the Keller Director’s stadium. In one important note, the game director confirmed that the mode was developed before Overwatch 2 was released. The team has touched on this timeline in the past, but his comments should help squash the general fan theory that the stadium was. It was born from Blizzard’s desire to compete with Marvel’s rivals.It was released in December 2024.
Keller says Blizzard will continue to communicate in the future and will release more insights into the stadium with additional managerial take next week. Meanwhile, he also confirms that while the stadium has taken part in the discussion as a popular addition to Overwatch 2, Blizzard is committed to maintaining other core experiences, such as standard quick play and competitive options.
“Before I sign off, I would like to repeat the team’s commitment to Overwatch’s core mode,” Keller revealed. “We still put our time, energy and passion into these. The stadiums aren’t competing for these resources. It’s increasing the opportunities to offer Overwatch in new and exciting ways.
“I can’t wait to see what’s coming there, especially season 18. It’ll be a banger! Enjoy the stadium. As always, let’s make a great game.”
Overwatch 2 brought the stadium to players when Season 16 was released last week. This is part of Blizzard’s ongoing initiative to revitalize the player base; Comprehensive Spotlight Presentation February. That leads to a return of booty box and Improved steam rating As players celebrate The best Overwatch experience fans have seen in years.
We’re waiting for more UDPATEs, but check out our guide to learn more about how the stadium works. You can also check out the best tank builds, DPS builds and support build recommendations.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor to Passthecontroller. He is best known for his work on sites such as Pitch, Fugitive, Only sp. Be sure to provide him with followers on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@mikecripe).
