People will argue angle skipping is a noticeable issue at this high of a sensitivity, and it is, however there is a valid reason behind the fact that the default sensitivity in Overwatch is 15.
In Overwatch, you can only see 103 degrees out of a total of 360 degrees at one given time. It goes from one end of your screen to the other.
The default sensitivity in Overwatch is as close to 1:1 to your DPI (Your Windows sensitivity) as possible. Let’s do the math.
Let’s assume you use a DPI of 400. Using Overwatch’s default sensitivity of 15, you will get 23.091 cm per 360, or 9.09094488 inches per 360.
Divide 103 by 360 because your screen can only display 103 degrees, assuming you’re using default FOV. you will get 0.28611111111. Multiply your cm/in per 360 by this value and you should get 6.60659166664 cm, or 2.6010203412 in.
Ok well what does this mean? Well let’s assume you use the 1:1 windows sensitivity setting (6:11 ticks on the windows pointer settings, which is 1:1 to your DPI.) To move your mouse in Windows across a 1080P screen (The most common resolution of a screen), it takes 6.858 cm, or 2.7 in to move your cursor from one end of your screen to the other. This is as close as you can get to 1:1 sensitivity with your DPI as possible, because the values for each are similar. It takes 2.7 in to move your cursor from one end of your screen to the other in windows, and in Overwatch, it takes 2.6 in to move your cursor from one end of the screen (103 FOV out of 360) to the other. Since Overwatch was released before you could put decimals into your sensitivity, Overwatch rounded it up to 15, and that is why the default sensitivity of Overwatch is 15. And this doesn’t just apply to 400 DPI. It applies to every DPI. Try it for yourself!
TL;DR, The default sensitivity of Overwatch (15) is 1:1 with your DPI (sensitivity in Windows.)
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I had heard somewhere that Jeff Kaplan used is sensitivity as his default and so it became the default but I could be wrong about that. Your explanation is very interesting and I would hope you are correct. I wonder how does aiming or moving desktop mouse cursor translate to aiming in a 3D space? can it truly be 1 to 1?