Blizzard Entertainment is giving Overwatch 2 its second big shake-up of 2025 this week, launching a new game mode on Tuesday that radically changes the standard rules of team play and introduces all-new powers for the game’s heroes. Stadium will also add a new, optional third-person camera view, ditch the mid-game hero-switching mechanic that’s essential to other modes, and give heroes wild new variations. Reinhardt can fly now.Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller describes Stadium as a third pillar for the hero shooter, not just as a new mode that can stand alongside Quick Play and Competitive modes. The game’s development team is now structured with this in mind. Keller told press in a roundtable interview that there’s a “totally separate team of people that are solely devoted to working on Stadium.” They’ll add new heroes to the mode — Stadium will launch with 17 playable heroes; Overwatch 2 currently has 42 — as well as new Stadium-specific maps and game modes each season.“We really want to put as much time and attention into supporting Stadium as we do the rest of the game,” Keller said.Stadium has been in development in some form or another for years, Keller said — even before Overwatch 2 launched in 2022. The goal with the new mode, he explained, was to give Overwatch 2 players more tactical gameplay, with downtime between rounds where players could strategize their hero builds to counter their opponents’ builds. “The reason people play a hero shooter is to just get that power fantasy of what it means to play that particular character, and Stadium allows us to push that further than we ever have in the game,” Keller said.Image: Blizzard EntertainmentStadium is a round-based, best-of-seven mode. Before each round, players spend a mode-specific currency called Stadium Cash on items that boost existing abilities and powers that dramatically reimagine those abilities. Heroes will initially get modified abilities that boost damage or healing, or reduce cooldown times. As games of Stadium progress, players will earn more currency to spend on wild new powers, like the aforementioned option to have Reinhardt fly when using his rocket-boosted Charge ability.Some other heroes’ powers can get even wilder. Ana can unlock the ability to Nano Boost her entire team or shoot her Nano Boost dart through walls. Moira can fire “multiball” orbs. Mei can turn into a giant rolling ball of ice. Kiriko can create a clone of herself when teleporting toward an ally using Swift Step.These purchasable hero powers are kind of the alternative to hero switching, since Stadium requires teams to lock in their hero choices from the start of a game. But if your team has a Genji, for example, he can purchase a power that offers beam reflection to counter a troublesome Zarya or Symmetra. And as teams stack items and powers over the course of a game of Stadium, things can get pretty chaotic and hectic. But that’s also when Stadium is the most fun.Stadium’s initial lineup of heroes includes characters that have been in the game since the beginning, including Reinhardt, Soldier: 76, Genji, Reaper, and Zarya. Some veteran heroes, like Tracer and Hanzo, will come in later seasons. There’s also some fresh blood in Stadium’s launch roster, including Juno, Kiriko, and Freja, the last of whom is the game’s newest damage-class hero; she’ll make her Overwatch 2 debut and her Stadium debut on April 22, with the launch of season 16.Image: Blizzard EntertainmentThe full roster of Overwatch 2 heroes is expected to come to Stadium in time, but adding them will take a lot of work, senior game designer Dylan Snyder and lead level designer Ryan Smith said. Building out dozens of powers for each hero across the roster and attempting to balance them all is hard — and even harder for certain characters, Snyder said. “There are heroes whose kits are just already so tight and complete that as soon as you start to expand it you’re playing with fire,” Snyder said. “Mercy was actually one of those; having such a powerful ability like Resurrect, you have to be very careful what you do to expand something like that.”Smith said that “a lot of the high-mobility characters are the risky ones,” noting that D.Va was a tough character to adapt to Stadium play.Snyder said that alpha testing Stadium with thousands of players in recent months has helped iron out some of the mode’s balance issues. “Cassidy was a very early one for us that was tricky,” he said. “We knew that we wanted to pursue something with Fan the Hammer, and we definitely maybe went a little too far with that. [We learned] very quickly how in the hands of a skilled marksman how bad that could be for an enemy.”Like other modes of Overwatch 2, expect a fairly quick response to imbalance issues and possibly even new items and powers that address holes in heroes’ kits. “I expect we’ll get a large number of our player base moving over to Stadium,” Keller said, ensuring that players put the new mode through its paces.Overwatch 2 is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The game’s new Stadium mode launches on all platforms April 22.See More: Overwatch 2Nintendo SwitchNintendo Switch logoPlaystationPlaystation logoPlaystationPlaystation logoPlaystationPlaystation logoWindowsWindows logoXboxXbox logoXboxXbox logoXboxXbox logoExplore The GameWhy it mattersBlizzard’s polish and world-building expertise is present throughout Overwatch 2, a constantly evolving, free-to-play, and endlessly replayable shooter.— Michael McWhertor, Correspondent