Blizzard comments on Overwatch's hero-heavy 2026 plans: "The next year could be something different"

We asked the Californian developer about how a year featuring 10 new heroes will reflect future plans for the game.

Blizzard pulled out all of the stops to ensure that Overwatch will have a memorable 2026. There is tons of content being planned, most of which we've commented on recently in our dedicated Spotlight article. But the most eye-catching promise for this calendar year is the addition of 10 new heroes to the game, five of which fully launch next week when 2026's Season 1 arrives on February 10.

So will this be the new content plan cadence? Can we expect 10 heroes every single year for Overwatch? This is a question we asked Blizzard directly during a recent visit to the Californian developer's Irvine headquarters, where associate game director Alec Dawson expressed that things will likely change on an annual basis.

"This year's focus is really on the heroes and the narrative," begins Dawson. "So driving the narrative forward and introducing you to a bunch of new heroes throughout the year. 10 in total, right. The next year could be something different. It could be a gameplay system like perks that changes up how the heroes may feel but it could be just a different variety of them."

He continues, "We're really trying to figure out, I think long-term, what are the things we can surprise players with? I think we will surprise players with releasing 10 heroes this year. I think Overwatch has a lot of design space for us to continue to build into, but we're always thinking about how much complexity can we introduce, how can we make sure it still feels like an approachable game down the line? We don't want to build and build on top of that forever, so sometimes we may have to revise that in different ways too."

So perhaps 2027 will focus on other parts of the wider game while serving up a more concise array of new heroes. Either way, it's probably a safe bet to assume that 10 heroes each and every year won't be the norm as the cards seem to have fallen this way for 2026.

For more Overwatch, be sure to read about the Nintendo Switch 2 launch plans, the "challenge" of the Overwatch 2 era, and the crazy Hello Kitty crossover that is on the way.