More than a few times now I’ve seen people making claims about when certain heroes were added to the game, or reworked into another role, and being off by several months, or even more than a year in some cases. Or claiming that the amount of time between new hero releases for a certain role was way longer/shorter than it actually was. Or claiming that the number of heroes in a certain role was x during a certain time period, and being completely wrong. I’m sure most people are capable of just looking these things up whenever/if needed, but just for fun I thought I’d make a timeline of sorts that you can read through in order to see exactly when all the heroes were added, how much time went by between each new hero release for a certain role, and how many heroes were in each role at any given time.
Starting from the launch of Overwatch in May 2016.
2016
May 24th
The game launched with the following 21 heroes;
5 Tank heroes:
D.va
Reinhardt
Roadhog
Winston
Zarya
6 Offense heroes:
Genji
McCree / Cassidy
Pharah
Reaper
Soldier: 76
Tracer
6 Defense heroes:
Bastion
Hanzo
Junkrat
Mei
Torbjörn
Widowmaker
4 Support heroes:
Lúcio
Mercy
Symmetra
Zenyatta
July 19th
The 22nd hero; Ana, was added, bringing the number of Support heroes up to 5.
(Time from last new Support hero: 1 month, 25 days)
November 15th
The 23rd hero; Sombra, was added, bringing the number of Offense heroes up to 7.
(Time from last new Offense hero: 5 months, 22 days)
2017
March 21st
The 24th hero; Orisa, was added, bringing the number of Tank heroes up to 6.
(Time from last new Tank hero: 9 months, 25 days)
July 27th
The 25th hero; Doomfist, was added, bringing the number of Offense heroes up to 8.
(Time from last new Offense hero: 8 months, 12 days)
November 16th
The 26th hero; Moira, was added, bringing the number of Support heroes up to 6.
(Time from last new Support hero: 1 year, 3 months, 28 days)
2018
March 20th
The 27th hero; Brigitte, was added, bringing the number of Support heroes up to 7.
(Time from last new Support hero: 4 months, 4 days)
June 26th
The Offense & Defense roles were merged into one role: Damage
Symmetra was reworked and moved from the Support role into the new Damage role, bringing the number of Damage heroes up to 15, and bringing the number of Support heroes down to 6.
(Time from last new Damage hero: 11months)
July 24th
The 28th hero; Wrecking Ball, was added, bringing the number of Tank heroes up to 7.
(Time from last new Tank hero: 1 year, 4 months, 3 days)
November 13th
The 29th hero; Ashe, was added, bringing the number of Damage heroes up to 16.
(Time from last new Damage hero: 4 months, 18 days (assuming you count Symmetra as the previous *new Damage hero))
2019
March 19th
The 30th hero; Baptiste, was added, bringing the number of Support heroes (back) up to 7.
(Time from last new Support hero: 11 months, 27 days)
August 13th
The 31st hero; Sigma, was added, bringing the number of Tank heroes up to 8.
(Time from last new Tank hero: 1 year, 20 days)
This was also when Role Queue was added into the game, which has nothing to do with hero releases, but I felt it was important enough to mention here.
2020
April 14th
The 32nd hero; Echo, was added, bringing the number of Damage heroes up to 17.
(Time from last new Damage hero: 1 year, 5 months, 1 day)
2021
No new heroes were added, and none were reworked into other roles.
2022
April 26th
Overwatch 2 Beta #1 started
Doomfist was reworked, and moved from the Damage role into the Tank role, bringing the number of Tank heroes up to 9.
(Time from last new Tank hero: 2 years, 8 months, 13 days)
The 33rd hero; Sojourn, was added. The number of Damage heroes was unchanged and remained at 17, due to Doomfist’s move to the Tank role.
(Time from last new Damage hero: 2 years, 12 days)
June 28th
Overwatch 2 Beta #2 started
The 34th hero; Junker Queen, was added, bringing the number of Tank heroes up to 10.
(Time from last new Tank hero: 2 months, 2 days (assuming you count Doomfist as the previous *new Tank hero))
October 4th
Overwatch 2 launched.
The 35th hero; Kiriko, was added, bringing the number of Support heroes up to 8.
(Time from last new Support hero: 3 years, 6 months, 15 days)
December 6th
The 36th hero; Ramattra, was added, bringing the number of Tank heroes up to 11.
(Time from last new Tank hero: 5 months, 8 days)
2023
April 11th
The 37th hero; Lifeweaver, was added, bringing the number of Support heroes up to 9.
(Time from last new Support hero: 6 months, 7 days)
August 10th
The 38th hero; Illari, was added, bringing the number of Support heroes up to 10.
(Time from last new Support hero: 4 months)
December 5th
The 39th hero; Mauga, was added, bringing the number of Tank heroes up to 12.
(Time from last new Tank hero: 11 months, 29 days)
2024
April 16th
The 40th hero; Venture, was added, bringing the number of Damage heroes up to 18.
(Time from last new Damage hero: 1 year, 11 months, 21 days)
(Also thought I’d just include this, even though it hasn’t happened yet;)
August 20th
The 41st hero; Juno, will be added, bringing the number of Support heroes up to 11.
(Time from last new Support hero: 1 year, 10 days)
Notes and interesting facts;
- The longest time between new Support heroes was 3 years, 6 months and 5 days, between Baptiste and Kiriko
- The longest time between new Damage heroes was 2 years and 12 days, between Echo and Sojourn
- The longest time between new Tank heroes was 2 years, 8 months and 13 days, between Sigma and Doomfist('s Tank rework)
- The Offense Role received 2 new heroes; Sombra & Doomfist, before being merged with Defense into the Damage role
- The Defense role did not receive any new heroes before being merged with Offense into the Damage role
- Support is the only role that ever had it’s total number of heroes decrease, as a result of a hero (Symmetra) being reworked and moved into another role
If you notice any mistakes or discrepancies, they were all deliberate because I am trying to push an agenda here…nah, fr if any of you are boring enough (like myself) to read through all this and notice anything that doesn’t make sense, feel free to let me know so I can correct it.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a lovely day y’all 