Overwatch 2 Stadium is one of the biggest shakeups for the game since the sequel launched in 2023. Hero perks in standard Quickplay and Competitive let you tweak hero abilities through a handful of upgrade choices. Stadium, a new mode separate from standard play, lets you completely change how abilities function and even adds new effects for weapons and equipable items to give your team a boost. How many of these improvements you get depends on how well you perform in each round, though Blizzard included catch-up mechanisms to help struggling teams.
Overwatch 2 Stadium release date
Overwatch 2 Stadium release date
Overwatch 2 Stadium goes live on April 28, 2025 with the start of Season 16 and the introduction of new damage hero Freja. Stadium is a permanent addition, and Blizzard plans to update it with more heroes and maps. Blizzard hasn’t said what the cadence of Stadium updates will be like—if, for example, each new season will introduce balance changes or fresh additions to Stadium along with the standard rollout of heroes and Quickplay maps.
Overwatch 2 Stadium gameplay details
What is Stadium?
Stadium is a new mode where two teams compete to win the best of seven rounds. Stadium matches are 5v5, with two supports, two damage heroes, and one tank, and it’s role queue only—no hero dupes allowed.
What separates Stadium from normal matches is that you can modify your hero by purchasing items, weapons with different effects, and entirely new abilities through a MOBA-like shop between rounds. Soldier 76, for example, can make his Biotic Healing Field move with him and damage enemies, while Kiriko can clone herself, and D.Va channels her inner Torbjorn to spew lava with her rocket boosters. Upgrades cost Stadium Cash, which you can earn during rounds in several ways, and while Blizzard will include a few recommended builds for each hero as a guide, you’re free to mix and match whatever improvements you think might work best or prove totally broken.
Blizzard chose third-person mode as Stadium’s default perspective, a first for the game. The team said that, with the new arena layouts and skill effects, seeing what’s happening around your hero is more important than in normal Overwatch 2 play. However, if you prefer first-person mode, you can change back at any time.
All Overwatch 2 Stadium heroes at launch
Overwatch 2’s Stadium mode will include 18 heroes when it goes live—five tanks, six supports, and seven damage heroes. More will arrive in future seasons, though Blizzard gave no indication about how often they plan to add them.
|
DPS |
Support |
Tanks |
|---|---|---|
|
Genji |
Ana |
Zarya |
|
Reaper |
Moira |
Reinhardt |
|
Soldier 76 |
Mercy |
Orisa |
|
Cassidy |
Lucio |
Junker Queen |
|
Ashe |
Juno |
D.Va |
|
Mei |
Kiriko |
Row 5 – Cell 2 |
|
Freja |
Row 6 – Cell 1 | Row 6 – Cell 2 |
Does Stadium have ranked competitive play?
Stadium has its own ranked mode separate from the base game’s competitive scene, so your rank in one won’t affect the other. Stadium ranked includes seven skill brackets:
- Rookie
- Novice
- Contender
- Elite
- Pro
- All-Star
- Legend
Reaching the Elite rank in all three roles each season will earn you Epic-grade skins exclusive to Stadium’s ranked mode, along with points used to unlock weapon skins. The Epic skin for Stadium’s first competitive season is for Juno, but you have to reach All-Star rank with any role to get it.
Overwatch 2 Stadium modes and maps
Stadium includes three modes from the base game and nine maps total, with more maps planned for future updates. Some of Stadium’s maps are new or reworked areas from existing locations, such as Busan or Watchpoint: Gibraltar, while a few others are completely new to Overwatch 2.
Control maps
- Ilios Ruins
- Gogadoro (Busan)
- Arena Victoriae (New)
- Nepal
Push maps
- Colosseo
- Redwood Dam (Watchpoint: Gibraltar)
- Place Lacroix (Paris)
Clash maps
Overwatch 2 Stadium other details
Stadium Cash explained
Stadium Cash lets you buy upgrades and items for your hero between rounds, and you earn it based on performance in battle. Dealing, healing, and blocking damage will earn you Stadium Cash. The better you do, the more stuff you can buy between rounds, so you can do even better in the next fight and buy even more stuff afterward.
If it sounds like all this makes room for a rather glaring balance issue between teams, Blizzard thinks so, too. All players start with 3,500 Stadium Cash, which Blizzard says is enough to purchase three items or upgrades, and everyone gets an upgrade for free before the first, third, and fifth round to help keep both sides on as even a field as possible.
If you find yourself perpetually short on cash, you can target specific, high-performing players on the opposing team to earn a bounty reward. Every player starts with a bounty of 300 Stadium Cash, and that amount increases with each elimination they earn for a maximum possible bounty of 2,000. The game marks a player with an orange star icon once their bounty hits 750 or higher, making it easier to track them down, and the bounty amount resets to 300 after a character is eliminated. Those who are eliminated with the default bounty amount of 300 will have their bounty drop by 100, making it (theoretically) less of an incentive to harass struggling players.
Stadium Cash has another use as well—health buffs. Blizzard said that for every 500 Stadium Cash a player earns during a match, their hero gains one extra health point for a total of 300 additional max health. Tanks gain speed and strength buffs for every 250 Stadium Cash earned, though Blizzard hasn’t shared exact numbers for them.
Stadium counts the cash that you spend on upgrades as part of your total, so you won’t see these improvements disappear if you splash out in the item shop.
What is Stadium’s mercy rule?
During Stadium’s testing phase, Blizzard experimented with a mercy rule that ends a match after one team wins the first three rounds. The idea is that the winning team isn’t likely to suddenly lose the fourth round, and ending the match early lets everyone try again more quickly.
That rule remains in place for Stadium’s launch, but Blizzard added another qualification tied to Stadium Cash. The mercy rule activates if one team wins the first three rounds and have a combined total of 15,000 Stadium Cash more than the losing team. Stadium awards cash based on performance in matches,so the new mercy rule is designed to kick in only if it really seems like the losing team has a low chance of mounting a comeback. Blizzard said the team is open to revising the mercy rule in future Stadium updates.