Blizzard admits Overwatch 2 queue times are long because nobody's playing support

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It wants to make the support role more fun

Overwatch 2 Kiriko twitch drops
(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

Confirming longstanding player theories, Blizzard says Overwatch 2 queue times are longer than hoped primarily because support is unpopular, so it's making changes in an effort to make the role more appealing. 

We've gone over this before: it sucks being an Overwatch 2 support player, and since fewer people want to play that role, tank and DPS players are suffering long queues to get into matches. Now we're seeing Blizzard officially recognize the issue and at least start to talk about addressing it.

In a development update published on Overwatch's official website, executive producer Jared Neuss said queue times are "a very real, very consistent focus area for the team" and pledged to make playing support more fun. While he admits that there isn't a "silver bullet" that'll fix everything right away, there are "a LOT of ideas" being considered for upcoming seasons.

"Many of these ideas are focused on the support role and how we can make it more fun and more rewarding to play," Neuss said. "We're discussing targeted support hero reworks, game system updates, and even some role-wide changes to improve support quality of life."

The specifics of Overwatch 2's attempt to revitalize the support role haven't been revealed, but Neuss said we'll get updates on the changes as they're decided on.

"In the short term, we’ve made queue-time estimates more accurate in the UI (support queues are less than one minute, in most cases) and we’re going to experiment with our Battle Pass XP rewards for those who queue as support/all roles."

In case you want to do your part to reduce queue times, here's the full Overwatch 2 support tier list to help you pick a main.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.