Overwatch 2's new Stadium mode has been so popular Blizzard rolls out huge new roadmap for it

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Overwatch 2's new Stadium game mode has been a huge success, so much so that it's the most played game mode so far, beating out Competitive and Quick Play modes, with developer Blizzard rolling out a huge Stadium-packed roadmap. Check it out:

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There were 2.3 million matches played across 7.8 million hours of Stadium during its launch week, which is twice the number of the prior most popular game mode's launch week -- which was OW Classic when it was added to Overwatch 2 -- where in its first week, 900 billion in Stadium cash was collectively earned. On top of that, 206 million items were chosen by players during rounds.

Since the new Stadium game mode has been so popular, Blizzard has published an article explaining the development history, with director Aaron Keller writing a very personal story of how Stadium came to be. Keller writes: "Stadium emerged as an idea before Overwatch 2 launched. In fact, before it was presented to the team, one of my kids created the first pitch document with a sample level and presented it to me! Stadium has come a long way since then, but I always think of my son when playing".

Blizzard is hard at work taking in all of the data from the millions of Overwatch 2 gamers running the new Stadium game mode, and will balance and tweak the hell out of it in the weeks and months to come, leading into Season 17 and Season 18.

The team has teased on x that the future of Stadium is looking bright already, with Freja dropping in mid Season 16, you'll be able to share and save your Hero builds, with new Heroes dropping every season, and a new mode called Payload Race coming in Season 18. All of this and more arrives later this year, and beyond.

• Heroes: Our newest addition to the Overwatch roster will also be the first new Hero added Freja is headed to Stadium and she'll arrive with the Season 16 midseason patch. But she's not the only Hero on the way! We'll have new Heroes added every Season, since we think adding new heroes is critically important for Stadium. Each time we've released a new addition internally, they've totally shifted the meta and the way we thought about putting together a build.
• Game Modes: We're planning on releasing a new game mode within Stadium named Payload Race and two brand-new maps will launch with it. On top of that, we'll be integrating a new mechanic that we've been calling "Quests" internally. At the start of each match, players will select from a random set of quests that will dole out rewards once objectives are completed.
• Systems: While we're really excited for new content in Stadium, we think systems that influence the way you put a build together can have an even greater impact. In Season 17, we'll be releasing a build importer and exporter. This will not only allow players to put together builds outside of a Stadium match and then select them inside a match, it will also allow players to select from community builds as well.