if you want my take on it’s because…
tank requires teamwork.
people mostly play solo qeue.
solo qeue = less teamwork.
less teamwork = less tanks.
but i could also rant on the art design decisions for tanks and supports.
Adding a raging Mauga and best-girl JunkerQueen would help 
.
Though seriously, when Sigma was banned I was lost lol. Like I don’t know how I enjoyed tank before he was added (besides Hog), so literally adding tanks for more preferences would help
I still don’t agree. Even flankers need the chaos and distraction of a tank line moving in to accomplish anything. Sure, occasionally a solo DPS can pop an Ult and be gifted a 3-4k he absolutely shouldn’t have gotten, but it’s the red team screwing up.
DPS rely on Tanks heavily, Tanks rely on Supports heavily, and Supports rely on everyone.
to many hardcounters and cc
is not a fun experience,
Idk, In my experience tanks have some of the highest impact on the game.
Like Zarya is a good carry hero.
I guess impact =/= fun, and fun is an important factor. I still find them fun though.
As a tank main, the reason I hate playing tank is because the tank balance is almost always terrible. I mean right now for example; You play rein, zarya, and sometimes d.va. you can play whatever you want, but if the enemy is running rein zarya and you run anything else, you basically lose.
Another reason is burst damage. In no universe should I peak a corner with hog and die. I mean seriously, in the time it took me to peak and fire a secondary, I died. That is absolutely ridiculous. It is far too easy to kill tanks in overwatch; never have I played a game with tanks where tanks are so easy to kill. Any tank without a shield is as good as dead in this game.
Next, cc. Cc is the more frequent answer you get. Heroes like doomfist who can knock you around like a pinball, heroes like ball who do the same.
Finally, the non versatility of tanks in overwatch. This is badly compounded by 1. The lack of tanks in the game and 2. Spotty tank balance, but tanks as a whole are too restricted. For example, there are no tanks who are reliable at long range. That’s just an example, but you get my point.
You have a target on your back all the time, in game and in coms
Stun
Boop
Freeze
Dva bombed
exploding tires
rockets
die die die!
it’s high noon!
technicolor life-sucking spray
Bob, kill the tank!
easy to hit
everybody’s primary target
yelled at if you don’t like to play Rein
Cause they nerfed all tanks except Rein to hell and back.
I used to play tank a lot and the reason I stopped/started playing it less comes down to the viability of Orisa, and Mei. Orisa being meta is absolutely lame for a tank player that would prefer to do anything but follow a script. she isn’t meta currently but she is one of the reasons I stopped. Mei has always been annoying but she was niche. that has changed and mei has been meta for a while now.
Tanks are the leaders of the team and they are most reliant on their teammates to be effective. Most players don’t want that responsibility. Also the feedback in game caters to damage players with the elims, kill streaks, pew pew etc so Tank doesn’t feel as rewarding. There are also fewer tanks to choose from, so lack of variety can sap interest.
Cause shield bots are not fun, there’s not enough playstyle diversity and everyone wants to get kills, not babysit dps and support players. AND tons of cc thrown at you cause you’re a front liner and you have a big hitbox.
I have no idea why tank is unpopular. They are the only good heros.
Higher DMG than most DPS, Higher mobility than most DPS, Highest health in the game and the strongest ults.
This is a lot of it. Tanking is largely synonymous with playing Reinhardt, and Reinhardt is a very unusual playstyle a lot of people just don’t like. I started to like tanking the minute I stopped playing Reinhardt.
There’s a few reasons:
-Tank balance is absolutely awful. The game is currently Rein or throw and it has been that way for a while.
-Shields are so vital due to map design and hero design that you have to take a shield tank or throw (which also feeds into the Rein or throw, because Orisa, Sigma and Winston are all bad at the moment)
-Tanks have huge holes in their counterpick lineup, they don’t have good matchup options for a large portion of the DPS roster to switch to to ease up the pressure. Realistically, Tanks have no real good options (and I mean good options, not less bad) against Reaper, Mei and Sombra. Tanks have mediocre options against Snipers, Pharah and Doomfist. Coupled with the bad tank balance (e.g. the Rein or throw) it just becomes an exercise in futility if you’re not getting any teamwork.
-None of the tanks apart from Roadhog (and to a lesser extent Hammond) are self-sufficient in any way. Which means that you need constant healer support to be effective, and if your healers aren’t getting teamwork then you die with them.
-Very few character choices: This is made much worse by the horrible balancing, but Tank is a really small category and it only fills very few playstyles at the moment.
another reason is the whole notion of what you need in a team, for example the basic pillars are barriers, dps, heal.
if you’re running a team without a single barrier people are gonna get angry.
if you’re running a team with 2 low dps damage characters people are gonna get upset.
if you’re running a team with very low heals people are gonna get furious.
and due to that atleast one tank is obligated to pick a barrier tank and that i think is what is causing a lot of issues because not all tanks are viable all the time according to the community.
heaven forbid if you go zarya/d.va
Because they are co-dependent heroes in a game where people refuse to work together.
There are a lot of Tank players in Bleeding Edge atm, mostly because they don’t suck like they do in this game. Paladins has them too. Overwatch just make tanking terrible.