For the last few weeks, Overwatch 2 players have been able to jump into a work-in-progress build of the game and participate in a PvP beta showcasing some of the new hero reworks we’re going to be seeing, a new map, and the new Push game mode. Now the Overwatch 2 PvP beta has come to an end, the development team has released a blog post analysing the data they’ve collected – and it’s good news for fans of the new damage hero Sojourn.
Looking at Blizzard’s data, as you might expect, Sojourn was by-far the most popular Overwatch 2 hero for the first few days of the PvP beta. “Sojourn peaked at over 6x in weighted usage rate, which means she was played over six times more than the equilibrium rate for damage heroes”, according to the Overwatch 2 PvP beta data analysis post.
This weighted usage did drop as time went on, but Sojourn still remained one of the most popular heroes alongside Orisa and Doomfist – to no surprise, despite the limit of one tank-role hero per game. Both heroes were reworked for the Overwatch 2 beta – with Orisa being given a completely different ability kit and Doomfist being transformed from a damage hero into a tank hero.
This all might seem a little obvious, but what makes the beta data analysis interesting is the unmirrored win rate statistics shared by the development team. As the name suggests, an unmirrored win rate is a win rate where there isn’t the same hero on both teams.
This all might seem obvious, but what makes it interesting is the unmirrored win rate statistics that the development team have also shared.
Sojourn’s unmirrored win rate for the duration of the Overwatch 2 PvP beta was lowest only to Baptiste, sitting at around 45%. Of course, it’s hard to discern where Sojourn will sit in the Overwatch meta from this information, but it does suggest that she’s going to be balanced at launch.
Coming through.
Save the date for an #Overwatch2 Event on June 16, where we will share our plan for the months ahead, including the next PVP Beta! pic.twitter.com/8k1NSnum11
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) May 17, 2022
Commenting on Sojourn’s unmirrored win rate, the development team said the following:
“ Players were excited to play them in the beta, but everyone was unfamiliar with their new hero abilities and playstyles… This led to players picking them even in losing situations where it may have been more advantageous to swap to a different hero.”
Following this statement, there’s no information to suggest that Sojourn will be getting changes between now and the next Overwatch 2 PvP beta – which is rumoured to start at some point in June.
The development team’s comments on Orisa should be enough to tell us how they’re going to approach balancing heroes in-between beta testing periods ahead of Overwatch 2’s full launch.
“ Orisa remains unchanged for now, as it is still unclear if she is bad, or if the community at large is just bad at her. We’re leaning towards the latter, as we all seemed to have that one friend who steamrolled through the beta with Orisa and her new kit.”
While these comments aren’t concrete evidence that changes are coming to the already-reworked Overwatch 2 heroes, it doesn’t seem likely given the fact that there are so many more tweaks and changes being planned across the roster. However, we’ll have to wait before we find out more information on those.
For now, though, you can check out information on how to access the Overwatch 2 beta right here – and the strange news that Overwatch 2 players are getting hit by cars on purpose here. The Overwatch 2 release date is still a little ways away, but things are looking good for fans of this hero shooter.