New Overwatch 2 players have to play 100 matches to unlock every character

Overwatch 2 is going to have a new introduction for first-time players, which will require players new to the game to play around 100 matches in order to access all the game's modes and characters.

This first-time user experience (or FTUE), as Blizzard calls it, only applies to brand-new accounts dipping into an Overwatch game for the first time - so if you've already logged some hours in the original game, you won't have to go through the process when Overwatch 2 launches - just make sure you've got Overwatch 2 cross progression and account merging set up to access all your unlocks and stats.

New players in Overwatch 2 will have "access to a limited set of game modes, heroes, and some other restrictions," as Blizzard explains in a blog post. In the first phase of the FTUE, players will "rapidly" unlock access to the game's various modes, as well as voice chat. You'll also have to win 50 quick play matches before gaining access to the game's competitive mode.

In the second phase of the FTUE, you'll have to play "approximately 100 matches" to unlock access to all the heroes from the original game. You'll be able to sidestep this restriction by playing with friends, where most FTUE limits are lifted, but you'll still have to put in the time to get access to everything in the solo queue.

Blizzard says the reasoning behind the FTUE is twofold. First, it gives new players a more gradual introduction to a game that has become much more complicated over the years. Second, it's "an effective way to discourage disruptive behavior and cheating." In theory, the extra time you have to spend unlocking everything should make boosting, smurfing, and cheating on new accounts much more of a grind, and Blizzard's detection systems will have a big pile of matches in which to catch disruptive players before they hit the competitive pool.

Brand-new characters are, of course, set to be unlocked through the Overwatch 2 battle pass, no matter how much experience you've got with the game. That approach to new heroes has already proven controversial.

If you want to enjoy the original, you have one more week to play Overwatch 1 before it's gone forever.

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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.