The new Overwatch 2 Stadium mode is exactly what the aging hero shooter needs. Blizzard has injected multi-round play, persistent upgrades, and a new perspective into the game, making the entire experience feel fresh. With Marvel Rivals still atop the charts thanks to consistent updates and clear developer communication, Blizzard's new take on how we play OW2 is a welcome change of pace. That said, it's not a perfect mode yet, and game director Aaron Keller knows it. That's exactly why Keller has penned a new message to players, and it outlines what Blizzard is changing in Stadium going forward.
"I'm currently working on a longer Director's Take about the past, present, and future of Stadium – complete with a roap for the mode – but I wanted to do a quick round-up of things from this week," Keller writes in a new Overwatch 2 blog post. "There have been a lot of conversations around Stadium, and I want to make sure everyone is aware of the updates, changes, and how things are going."
For Blizzard, the current state of Stadium comes down to four concerns: the lack of crossplay , a high leaver rate, performance on older systems, and specific heroes and builds being frustrating. The multiplayer game's revolutionary new mode has a long way to go, but Keller and his team are quick to identify what's wrong.
Starting with Stadium crossplay, Keller is hopeful that it'll arrive in Season 17. "There are two ways we can do this, either create an unranked version of Stadium and enable it there or turn crossplay on in the current ranked version. Part of this decision will come down to how popular the game mode is. If a ton of people are playing it, then we'd feel confident there would be enough players in the unranked and ranked versions to healthy queue times and matchmaking."
Keller also explains that while Stadium has players leaving mid-game, it's not at a higher rate than Ranked. Stadium's leaver rate is currently 7%, and a newly-fixed bug means quitter penalties should now correctly impact all players. Keller adds that Blizzard is aware of how you might feel like players are leaving Stadium more often than anywhere else, even if they aren't, and assures that the team is looking into the phenomenon.
As for Stadium's overall performance, Keller says Blizzard is eying up general improvements. That said, if you've got older hardware you've no doubt noticed that your framerates are lower than usual. "Because of the sheer amount of extra abilities and powers that players can equip in Stadium, it is a technically demanding game mode. We've heard that it's hitting some systems harder, especially older ones," Keller writes.
"Because of this, the decision to lock older hardware to 30fps in the mode was made. This would stop erratic framerate swings, but it could feel worse more consistently for some players. We're putting tech in to dynamically disable this and are hoping to test it out in the next few weeks."
As for current builds and hero balancing, Blizzard says it's nerfing some items that cause frustration and buffing the ones you're not picking up as much. All of the Overwatch 2 characters in Stadium are impacted, but a new patch targets Cassidy, D.Va, and Zarya specifically. Blizzard is also looking at the data on hero bans and perks, alongside how you're all responding to new hero Freja, with Keller closing the article by saying Blizzard will talk about all of this in the coming weeks.
With Marvel Rivals still flying, Season 16 is a big moment for Overwatch 2. Blizzard has finally brought hero bans to OW2 (which have been in Rivals since launch), and Stadium is a colossal shakeup that could bode well for the shooter's future. 2025 is a big year for Overwatch 2, so let's hope Blizzard can keep the momentum.
As you dive into Blizzard's hero shooter make sure you check out our very own Overwatch 2 Stadium builds will help you come out on top.
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