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Overwatch 2 Hero Release Order: How the Roster Grew
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From the original twenty-one to 2026's five-hero wave, here is the rough shape of how the roster expanded and where to check the exact order.
Overwatch 2 hero release order splits cleanly into two eras: the heroes that existed before the sequel, and everyone added since.
The original roster
Overwatch launched in 2016 with 21 heroes, and most of the game's classic picks — Tracer, Reinhardt, Mercy, Genji and the rest — come from that original lineup, expanded gradually through the first game's live years.
What Overwatch 2 added at launch
Sojourn arrived as the headline new hero when Overwatch 2 launched in October 2022, with Junker Queen and Kiriko following within the sequel's first year — the earliest heroes built specifically for the 5v5 format.
The steady cadence since
From there, new heroes have landed every few months rather than on a fixed schedule: Ramattra, Lifeweaver, Illari, Mauga, Venture, Hazard and Freja all arrived across 2023 to 2025, with 2026 breaking the usual pace entirely by adding five heroes together — Domina, Emre, Mizuki, Anran and Jetpack Cat.
Why a precise date list goes stale
Blizzard doesn't keep a single official page listing every release date in order, and the cadence keeps changing. For the current, accurate order, the patch notes archive is the source that actually gets updated.