First-time Overwatch 2 players will be missing out on some of the FPS game's most popular characters

You’ve likely heard that new Overwatch 2 players will have to play 100 matches to unlock every character and mode on offer. Now, though, Blizzard has confirmed who will be available for first-time user experience players from the word go.

Unless you’ve bought and played Overwatch 1, you’ll be without fan-favourites such as Genji, D.Va, and Hanzo. The Shimada brothers are some of Overwatch’s most popular characters, but they're also among the more difficult heroes to play, so it somewhat makes sense to have people start with the easier ones to learn the basics. That said, you’re likely to be more engaged when playing someone you like, and are likely to find a cheese around it anyway.

Thankfully, you won’t be waiting long to unlock Genji as he’s the first unlockable character, followed by D.Va, Cassidy, and Hanzo. As for heroes you can start your Overwatch 2 journey with, you’ve got traditional tanks, healers, and DPS characters like Reinhardt, Mercy, Soldier 76, and more. You've also got more intermediate options like Zarya and Tracer, so you do have some flair picks if you fancy it.

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After that initial drop, first-time players will unlock new characters one-by-one. As a general rule, you'll be unlocking long-time heroes first, with more recent arrivals available further down the list.

Overwatch 2 hero list

Orisa
Reinhardt
Winston
Zarya
Pharah
Reaper
Soldier 76
Torbjorn
Tracer
Widowmaker
Lucio
Mercy
Moira

Overwatch 2 hero unlock order

Genji
D.Va
Cassidy
Ana
Hanzo
Junkrat
Roadhog
Symmetra
Zenyatta
Bastion
Sigma
Ashe
Brigitte
Mei
Doomfist
Baptiste
Sombra
Wrecking Ball
Echo

You can also check out all the Overwatch 2 Hero changes to get caught up on all the new reworks and balance adjustments before launch.

In other news, Overwatch 2 players seem to favour the new incremental hero-unlocking rules, which is nice.

Ahead of Overwatch 2, we wrote a eulogy for the Overwatch we once knew.

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.