Welcome brave heroes! The kingdom of Overland is in danger, and it will be up to you to save it from the terror of the Demon Lord! New adventures, magical skins, ways to play, and updates are coming in Overwatch 2’s latest season!

For Season 5, players will progress through the season Battle Pass to the theme of an epic role-playing adventure, including new challenges and game modes as part of a high-fantasy theme and unlock an all-new Mythic Adventurer skin for Tracer.

Join Tracer and her friends in Questwatch

We’re updating Battle Pass progression to unlock new rewards, plus we’re also introducing a fun new story with progression to some of your favorite heroes. Tracer, Emily, Orisa, and many of their friends have gathered together for a night of fun and games, enjoying a new role-playing campaign, Questwatch.

Tracer, alongside her trusted companion GR-iffon Orisa, has set out to explore the magical kingdom of Overland to become a knight. They will meet both friends and foes, as they look to save Queen Emily and her kingdom from the terror of Demon Lord Reinhardt. As you unlock tiers in the Season 5 Battle Pass, you will also unlock new chapters in their role-playing adventure.

Starting this season, those who progress with the Premium Battle Pass will also be able to unlock the new base Mythic Adventurer skin for Tracer at tier 45, but Tracer won’t be a full knight quite yet. As the campaign progresses, Tracer will become the knight that saves the kingdom, and you’ll unlock new customizations for the Mythic Adventurer skin along the way on tiers 65 and 80. This allows you to equip and show off Tracer’s Mythic skin in your matches throughout the season. You’ll also collect new Epic and Legendary skins, including Slime Queen Echo, Royal Guard Genji, and Demon Lord Reinhardt, just to name a few!

Defeat the Demon Lord

In celebration of this new theme, we have partnered with Overwatch Workshop Creator, CactusPuppy, to bring the first-ever creator-made game mode to Overwatch 2. Called Defeat the Demon Lord, this mode has a team of four intrepid heroes standing up against the powerful Demon Lord Reinhardt in a 1v4 Team Deathmatch brawl. Do you have what it takes to save the kingdom, or will you conquer it as the Demon Lord instead?

As you set off on your adventure into Season 5, you’ll have a variety of new event challenges called Key Quests to complete, which involve playing either your favorite modes or the new Defeat the Demon Lord game mode. Complete five of the Key Quests and you’ll unlock a treasure chest of 1,500 Currency, which can then be used to unlock your favorite past skins from the Hero Gallery. Plus you’ll earn as much as 20,000 XP in the Battle Pass!

Fun in the Sun returns

The Summer Games makes its debut in Overwatch 2! We’re bringing fun new challenges to players, bringing back the fan-favorite Lúcioball, and introducing a whole new game mode, Winston’s Beach Volleyball. Be sure to check out the in-game shop for Summer-themed skins, including a fresh skin for Mercy that is sure to make a splash. You can also take part in fun event challenges to earn a new tropical-themed skin for Doomfist and up to 50,000 Battle Pass XP.

Lúcioball, a fun 3v3 sports game where teams featuring Lúcio work to score a gigantic soccer ball into the opponent’s goal, is back! First to three goals wins. Try to outplay your opponents on three challenging maps with obstacles and jump pads throughout the arena!

However, the fun doesn’t stop there! Winston invites you to the beach for a whole new way to serve up your favorite Overwatch heroes, in Winston’s Beach Volleyball. You’ll run, jump, and spike a giant volleyball toward your opponents, scoring when the ball hits the sand on! Can you beat the heat in this new game mode? Find out when Summer Games launches on July 11.

Mystery and surprises await

Later this season, we’re bringing our take on the popular FPS gameplay of prop hunt to Overwatch 2 with Mischief and Magic. The royal guard will need to seek out a band of rogues hiding as everyday objects.

Will you be able to spot the sneaky thieves? This 5v5 elimination game mode will be available for a limited time starting July 25. You’ll also be able to complete challenges to earn rewards including an Epic skin for Ana and 50,000 Battle Pass XP.

Competitive updates in Season 5

Mystery Heroes Returns

We received a lot of praise for Competitive Mystery Heroes in Season 3, so starting today, we’re bringing back Competitive Mystery Heroes! This mode tests your skills to unpredictable situations and your overall skill using the entire roster of heroes. Can you flex your way to the top of the leaderboards?

Getting friends together for Competitive

We’ve heard your feedback that it’s hard for friends to play together competitively. In our main Competitive Play modes, we restrict the range in skill rating players can have when grouping up. Grand Master players are capped to only grouping up with just one other player. Playing together with friends is the best way to enjoy Overwatch and we are exploring new ways to get friends together for a fun competitive experience.

So for this season’s mid-season Competitive mode, we are introducing Team Queue, which only allows groups of five, regardless of skill rating, to play in Overwatch 2’s standard role lock ruleset. Here it will take more than just raw mechanical skill to help score a victory—good team coordination and communication will be more important than ever. In this mode, there are no skill restrictions for your team either, allowing friends to compete and climb the rank ladder together!

Season 5 hero balance preview

We have some cool changes to hero balance in Season 5, starting with some adjustments for everyone’s favorite climatologist. Mei’s primary fire will be updated to deal less damage but will now work to slow opponents nearly to the point of being frozen. When they reach this state, Mei’s secondary fire will deal additional damage for a lethal final blow.

We also made changes to playing against heroes with quick kill potential a little more fair to play against including Cassidy, Hanzo, and Widowmaker. Additionally, we’re looking to tune down Junker Queen’s rampage from causing too much trouble. Finally, we’re buffing Lifeweaver’s healing and damage output to give him more support to his allies and help defend against enemies that dive him.

If you’d like to learn more about these changes and our goals behind them, be sure to take a look at game director Aaron Keller’s latest blog.

Changes to weekly challenges

Another big change this season will be in how you complete weekly challenges. One of the biggest concerns we have seen from players is having progress erased from weekly challenges, along with sometimes taking too long to win games to complete some of those challenges. Having your progress be undone each week doesn’t feel very good, so starting in Season 5, any weekly challenges that are not completed by the time the reset hits will simply roll its progress over to your next week for you to complete.

We are also changing challenges that require only wins to complete to now allow all games completed in total, with wins counting as two games played. We’ll be adjusting the total number of games required to be higher, but players will likely spend the same average amount of time to complete the challenge as before. This should encourage players to play out matches regardless of outcome to gain progress to their weekly challenges and reduce occurrences of players leaving match early.

Visit the shop for free items all season long

Don’t forget to check the in-game shop during select weeks to collect your FREE Overwatch legacy skins. Sprint into the in-game shop from June 20 through June 26 and get the Sprinter Tracer Legendary Skin. On June 27 through July 4, you’ll want to swoop in to claim the all-new Valkyrie Wings weapon charm from the shop. All three are free! From July 4 to July 10, you’ll beat the heat with everyone’s favorite summer treat when you claim the Sprinkles Mei Legendary Skin. 

Prime Gaming Drops

If you have an Amazon Prime or Prime Video account, you can log onto Prime Gaming and claim fun new rewards throughout the season. Starting soon, you can get a head start in the Season 5 Battle Pass by claiming five-tier skips. If you have upgraded to the Premium Battle Pass, you’ll receive the rewards in each tier and get closer to unlocking the Mythic Adventurer Tracer Skin!

Later this season, you’ll be choo-choo charging through the enemy lines when you claim Conductor Reinhardt for free with Prime Gaming! But hurry, this popular Legendary Skin will depart the Prime Gaming station before you know it.

Bringing the Community together for more fun on Twitch

This season we are looking to bring the community together in more ways than before! We’re kicking off the fun with new Twitch drops celebrating the 2023 Overwatch World Cup—earn a spray, Player Icon, and four Overwatch World Cup home and away skins on the Overwatch 2 category on Twitch from June 18 to July 2. We’ll also have another Drops campaign starting July 11, where you can earn up to 5 Battle Pass tier skips when you watch Overwatch 2 content on Twitch.

A look into Overwatch 2: Invasion with a brand-new animated short

Be sure to keep your eyes on the horizon for what is coming in Overwatch 2: Invasion. On August 4, log onto Overwatch 2 to watch our brand new animated short featuring Sojourn, premiering exclusively in the game client. You’ll get a glimpse into the action you can expect when Overwatch 2: Invasion launches the following week. We’ll also have free rewards when you log in, including a new emote for Sojourn.

As we lead up to the launch of our new Story Missions, be sure to check out for news updates, including an upcoming livestream, news blogs, and more. So pick up your dice, roll on in for new adventures, and begin your journey to knighthood!

Update Sunday July 23, 2023 - Due to community feedback we are amping up our Twitch Drops program next season and shifting our Support-A-Streamer campaign to a future date. We’re excited to kick off this initiative again, so stay tuned for further updates.