Blizzard is adding 5 new heroes to Overwatch on Feb. 10, with 5 more planned for 2026 in a big expansion for Overwatch’s 10th anniversary.
Overwatch is about to have its biggest year yet, with the addition of 10 new heroes in 2026. Five of those heroes will arrive all at once on Feb. 10, with the launch of season 1, an unprecedented content update that outdoes the launch of Overwatch 2 back in 2022. (And yes, the name of the game is now just Overwatch; Blizzard is dropping the 2 from its title as it plans for the next decade of its hero-based PvP shooter.)
The five new heroes of Overwatch comprise an entire team: one tank (Domina), two damage (Anran and Emre), and two support heroes (Jetpack Cat and Mizuki). All five of the new heroes have close connections to existing Overwatch heroes. Some, like Anran Ye, sister of Wuyang, and Emre Sarioglu, a former ally of Ana and Soldier: 76, have been teased in supplementary narrative materials, like comics and animated shorts.
Dropping multiple heroes at once is not the norm for the Overwatch team. Blizzard released three heroes — Junker Queen, Kiriko, and Sojourn — concurrently when it launched Overwatch 2, but the developer’s typical cadence has been one hero every other nine-week season. But for the 10th anniversary of Overwatch, game director Aaron Keller said the team wanted to make a big splash. In addition to the five heroes launching simultaneously on Feb. 10, Overwatch players can expect one new hero each season for the next five seasons. By the end of 2026, Overwatch will boast 55 playable heroes on its roster. The game launched in 2016 with 21 heroes.
Keller, speaking at a press conference Polygon attended at Blizzard’s headquarters in January, said the Overwatch team started planning 2026’s major hero releases a little over a year ago.
„The strategy was to put something out there that would feel something like an expansion“, Keller said. „This is a hero shooter, and I think the best way that you can drive excitement for our players [.] would be a bunch of new heroes. It’s why people play this type of game is to learn more about these heroes, pick them up and continuously master them.“
„We don’t want players to think that we rushed through five heroes over the course of the past year just to try to get one whole team’s worth of heroes out the door for season 1“, Keller added, noting that the Overwatch team has gotten faster at developing new heroes for the game.
