Overwatch 2 Director says 6v6 is “here to stay” and confirms new competitive mode

Overwatch Director Aaron Keller has all but confirmed 6v6 will remain in OW2 going forward and announced a new competitive mode just for 6v6 coming in Season 15.

In recent months, Overwatch 2 has been steadily reintroducing 6v6 gameplay ever after pressure to move away from the sequel’s 5v5 format with just one tank per squad.

The devs have tried a handful of different formats to test 6v6 such as limiting players to a minimum of one hero per role with a maximum of three to varying success.

Signs have been promising enough that the developers are willing to give 6v6 a shot as a competitive game mode, with high-level players pushing the format to its limits.

Overwatch 2 is adding a 6v6 competitive queue

In a blog post published on January 31, Keller explained that the 6v6 tests they’ve conducted so far have led them to believe there is demand for the format on a regular basis.

“These took the form of 6v6 Role Queue, and 6v6 Min 1 Max 3. The Role Queue version accounted for nearly 10% of all play hours in the game for most of its event run. For reference, our Role Queued Quick Play mode accounts for roughly 35-40% of play hours (this was lower during the 6v6 tests),” he said.

According to Keller, the developers are unclear about how large the demand is, but there’s enough for him to admit that they want to keep it around.

“It’s still a little early to say what 6v6’s place is in Overwatch with a decent amount of people playing it, I think that it’s probably here to stay in some form, but so far, we’re not ready to swap the core format of the game,” Keller explained.

As such, come mid season 15, Overwatch 2 will introduce a mini 6v6 competitive season. Keller did state how long the season will last for, but it’s safe to assume that’ll go on until the start of Season 16.

The Director also urged players to tune into the Spotlight event on February 12 to see how they plan to shake up Overwatch’s core gameplay in a big way in 2025.

This comes as Overwatch is facing its first true competitor to its hero shooter throne, with NetEase’s Marvel Rivals snatching up many of its players and streamers.

Overwatch 2 is going to need to bounce back in a big way and whatever is shown at the Spotlight event could very well be the beginning of that counter-attack.