Overwatch 2’s game director, Aaron Keller has been on a roll lately, sharing his thoughts on the game in a new series called Director’s Take. His latest blog post is all about win rates and hero popularity, and it’s a fascinating read.

Keller starts off by sharing some interesting observations about Overwatch 2’s ranked meta in the first few weeks of season 3. According to him, “most supports are viable in nearly every skill tier”, which is great news for players who love to play support. He also confirms that Brigitte is having a moment right now, with the highest win rate for nearly all skill tiers except for Top 500, where Zen takes the lead. On the other end of the spectrum are Kiriko and Moira, who have win rates of around 45%.

But here’s where things get really interesting: Keller notes that the heroes with the highest win rates aren’t always the heroes that are played the most. In fact, when it comes to supports, the top picks are Ana, Kiriko, and Mercy for nearly all skill tiers until Silver and Bronze, where Moira becomes more popular. So even though Brigitte has the highest win rate, she’s not necessarily the most popular hero.

This raises a lot of questions about the Overwatch meta and how players choose their heroes. Keller notes that it’s “counterintuitive” that Kiriko is so popular despite winning less often, and that Brigitte wins constantly with a much lower presence. So what does this mean for the game and the community?

One possible takeaway is that players don’t like to feel boxed in by a small pool of “best” hero picks. People want to play their favourite heroes, even if they’re not the most powerful. And if most players don’t care about the meta, how much should Blizzard care?

Keller acknowledges that there could be other factors at play here, like overall team composition or map differences. But he also says that the team “tends to think that highly skilled players are continuing to pick certain heroes for good reasons,” and they’re gathering additional metrics to study this. So we may hear more about this in the future.

In any case, it’s clear that the Overwatch community is passionate about the game and its heroes. People want every hero to be viable so that their favourites never have to fall out of fashion. And based on this data, that may be enough.

So if you’re an Overwatch player, keep playing your favourite heroes and if you’re not, maybe it’s time to give the game a try and see what all the fuss is about. Who knows, you might discover a new favourite hero and help shift the meta in a new direction.