Are some heroes played more than others? Why do you ask? 

Absolutely! There are heroes that are played drastically more than others. Surprisingly, Overwatch 2 hasn’t changed a whole lot from Season 9 but there are slight changes that impact popularity. It can be difficult to keep up with what and who is meta, and who is going to make you delete the game from getting completely shut down. Some of the heroes that are played more are commonly easier to use, and have more strengths for you and your team than weaknesses. Then there are some heroes that are played a lot that have a high skill floor.

It’s paramount that you match up your playstyle with the category of hero that best fits you depending on;  If you like playing aggressive, or more passive, if you have played other fps games, or if this is your first fps game, and how you feel playing the different roles in the game.

With pick rate and win rate stats from Overbuff as of 6/6/24. This article will help you understand what characters are most played in ranked and why.

12. Sojourn - Damage

Sojourn firing her railgun during her ultimate

She is the twelfth most played hero this season with a 2.97% pick rate and a 46.27% win rate. She is a solid pick…if your aim is decent. She is fourth most played hero in the damage category because of her fun abilities, high dps, and quick movement. 

Sojourn is easily compared to Soldier: 76 but isn’t played nearly as much as you will read later on. But don’t count her out. Sojourn is just as good if not better in some ways. If you can use her abilities correctly, you can pick your enemy team off one by one. 

Sojourn’s abilities - 

• Railgun (Left-click) - Rapid firing projectiles that generate energy on hit. 
• Railgun (Right-click) - High impact shots that consume stored energy. 
• Power Slide (Ability) - Ground slide that can cancel into a high jump. 
• Disruptor Shots (Ability) - Launch an energy burst that deals damage to enemies within it. 
• Overclock (Ultimate) - Railgun energy auto-charges for a short duration and charged shots pierce enemies. 

Pick your battles wisely, don’t take on heroes in close-range combat like Roadhog, and Orisa because of their huge health bar, and surprisingly high dps, unless you have heals. Mid-range poking tanks at the front lines is highly recommended. Add charged beam headshots as soon as you gain anywhere from 70-100 energy stored. Use disruptor shots to block line of sight and/or bait enemies to you and your team.

What makes Sojourn popular? 

• Slide jump 
• Charged shots shred
• Disruptor Shot 

11. Baptiste - Support

Baptiste throwing Immortality Field to save team from D.Va bomb

He is the eleventh most played hero in ranked play this season at 3.07% pick rate and 47.85% win rate. Baptiste is a well-rounded support hero, with just as much damage as dps heroes, pretty difficult to die, and he’s got some consistent heals to keep your team alive even at times close to death. He isn’t the best support hero but he makes a good duo with Lucio or Mercy. 

Baptiste abilities - 

• Biotic Launcher (Left-click) - Three-round burst gun. 
• Biotic Launcher (Right-click) - Lob a healing projectile that heals all allies near the impact. 
• Regenerative Burst (Ability) - Activate to heal yourself and nearby allies instantly, with additional healing over time. Instant heal is doubled for targets less than half health. 
• Immortality Field (Ability) - Toss a device that prevents allies from dying. Device can be destroyed. 
• Amplification Matrix (Ultimate Ability) - Project a matrix that doubles the damage and healing effects of allied projectiles. 
• Exo Boots (Passive) - Hold crouch to jump higher. 

What makes Baptiste popular? 

• Solid damage output
• Jumpy jump
• Immortality Field is insane

I’m sure you will hear this all the time but you need to focus more on healing with Baptiste than dps. Players can get lost with the amount of dps he can put out but you need to prioritize supporting your team with heals rather than shooting. Trust your dps and tanks to do the hard work. 

Use the jump often to gain height advantage for better view of your team unless you get dived by another hero that can easily climb elevation like Genji or D.Va. Then you might want to stay at ground level close to your team. Find advantages with line of sights to use for the Amplification Matrix. Make sure your team is around. Aim primary heals at allies feet to always hit your target. 

10. Orisa - Tank

Orisa throwing her Javelin

Orisa is the tenth most played hero with a 3.25% pick rate and a 48.93% win rate. Some of her abilities have been nerfed. You might see her pick rate drop throughout this season but not by much. Even with the nerfs, this robot will still be top dog for tanks. She has a huge health bar and armor. She can still harass anyone she wants with her aggressive kit. And obliterate your enemies by ability-cycling to constantly destroy lobby’s. If you like to punish your enemies with constant heat projectiles at a time and throw a javelin like an olympic athlete then Orisa is your hero!

Orisa’s Abilities - 

• Augmented Fusion Driver (Primary) - Automatic heat based weapon 
• Energy Javelin (Secondary) - Launch your javelin at an enemy to stun and knock them back. More effective if the enemy hits a wall. 
• Javelin Spin (Ability) - Spin your javelin to destroy projectiles and block enemies melee attacks, while also pushing enemies and increasing forward speed. 
• Fortify (Ability) - Gain temporary health, reducing all damage taken and becoming unstoppable. While active, heat generated by your weapon is reduced. 
• Terra Surge (Ultimate) - Sweep in enemies and anchor down, gaining the effects of Fortify and charging up a surge of damage. Use Q to unleash the surge early.

There is a reason why she is the most played tank this season and it's because she is truly an absolute menace to society compared to the other tanks. Even though she doesn’t have the highest win rate out of all the tanks, she is a spamming, ability-cycling punisher. Find your niche with her abilities and try different combos of ability-cycling for aggressive and defensive play. These are my fav combos for each play. 

Aggressive play - Javelin Spin to close distance, throw javelin to stun them, Fortify up close in personal and spam in their face. 

Defensive play - Throw Javelin to stun them, Javelin Spin to not take damage and retreat to heals, and Fortify after spin is done. 

What makes Orisa popular? 

• Strongest tank 
• Literally broken
• A million health…the list can go on for days.

9. Lucio - Support

Lucio turning up the base and about to boop the crap out of Zarya

Lucio is the ninth most played hero with 3.34% pick rate and the second highest win rate at 52.07%. Lucio is one of the best heroes to play because he is literally so fun in any game mode if you can master his movement, mechanics, and melody. He is infamous for his constant booping, music jamming, and decent three round burst. Lucio is a DJ that passively heals and boosts speed with the sound of his music. You just have to be close enough to hear him. Boop!

Lucio’s Abilities - 

• Sonic Amplifier (Primary) - Sonic projectile launcher.
• Crossfade (Ability) - Switches between two songs: Healing Boost heals nearby allies, and Speed Boost makes nearby allies move faster. 
• Amp It Up (Ability) - Increase effectiveness of your current song. 
• Soundwave (BOOP) - Create a short-range blast wave to knock enemies away from you.  
• Wall Ride (Passive) - Jump onto a wall to ride along it. 
• Sound Barrier (Ultimate) - Create temporary extra health for nearby allies. 

Lucio is a great support to main if you can’t main Ana or Baptiste because of his passive heals. You don’t need to worry about aiming at your allies to heal them. Now, you can focus a little bit on dealing damage to your enemies, and taking advantage of your speed with a Reinhardt or Mauga. Use the boop and wall ride to be the greatest escapist. And constantly BOOP enemies off of map objectives.

What makes Lucio popular? 

• Boop 
• Ultimate = Literal life saver
• Speed Boost

8. Zenyatta - Support

Zenyatta using ultimate to become one with Zen

Zenyatta is the eighth most played hero with a 3.40% pick rate and a 49.77% win rate. Zenyatta is a pretty popular pick because of his long range damage, healing, and one of the best ultimates for a support hero. Zenyatta is very fun to use on almost any game mode or map, just stay away from short-range encounters. 

Zenyatta’s abilities - 

• Orb of Destruction (Primary) - Energy orb projectiles that deal a good amount of damage. Hold and charge to release a massive amount of orbs dealing a lot of damage. 
• Orb of Discord (Ability) - Launch this orb at an enemy to increase the damage they take. 
• Orb of Harmony (Ability) - Launch this orb at an ally to heal them.
• Snap Kick (Ability) - Quick melee increased by 50% and its knockback is significantly increased. 
• Transcendence (Ultimate) - Become invulnerable, move faster, and heal nearby allies.

Stay back! You are a sniper support hero that doesn’t need to be in the frontlines. Look for picks in the middle to back of your enemy line but don’t get lost in the sauce with dps either! Constantly watch who your team is targeting, throw Orb of Discord to that target. Use Zenyatta with a dive comp like D.Va, Winston, Wrecking Ball. 

What makes Zenyatta popular?

• Transcendence is GOATED
• Orb of Discord
• He is one with Zen

7. Tracer - Damage

Tracer being an absolute beast, firing her little subbies and flashing around the map

Tracer is the seventh most played hero with a 3.77% pick rate and a 49.84% win rate. Tracer is my absolute favorite damage hero and probably is yours too if you’ve ever played her. She is also one of the most annoying damage heroes to play against because of her poking behind your team and hiding kit. She is pretty much the flash with a tiny semtex for her ultimate. 

Tracer’s Abilities - 

• Pulse Pistols (Primary) - short-range automatic weapons. 
• Blink (Ability) - Teleport in the direction you are moving.
• Recall (Ability) - Teleport back in time to your previous location and health.
• Pulse Bomb (Ultimate) - Throw out a powerful stick explosive grenade.

Be a little mosquito that is attracted to support heroes in the enemy back lines. Snipers like Widowmaker need to be taken care of by you. Try to go for one clip then do quick melee for an additional 30 damage. Try to keep 2 blinks at all times until you need to use them to escape. Map knowledge of health packs is crucial for Tracer. Distract tanks like Reinhardt when he has his shield up to make him anxious and gain advantage for your team. Do not pick Tracer if there is an enemy Cassidy, unless they’re trash.

What makes Tracer so popular? 

• Teleport
• Mosquito style kit
• Born in London

6. Cassidy - Damage

Cassidy smoking a gar, bout' to start blasting

Cassidy is the sixth most played hero with a 4.75% pick rate and a 47.56% win rate. Cassidy is very fun to play but challenging if you have bad aim. If you like Red Dead Redemption and you like to feel like you’re a cowboy with a nasty quickdraw then Cassidy is your hero. 

Cassidy Abilities - 

• Peacekeeper (Primary) - 6-shooter powerful revolver. 
• Combat Roll (Ability) - Roll in direction you are moving to take reduced damage AND reload peacekeeper
• Magnetic Grenade (Ability) - Throw a homing grenade that sticks to enemies, slow them down, and prevent them from using movement abilities. 
• Deadeye (Ultimate) - Face off against your enemies, begin to lock onto enemies in sight, and fan the hammer with auto-aim. 

Do not be in the front lines. Fan the hammer in close range. I know it’s a big gun but control the recoil! Take height advantage in between fights and always have the height advantage when using Deadeye. Hold Magnetic Grenade for flankers. Use roll to reduce damage incoming, ITS 50% reduction in damage. Also you can use roll in mid-air to get to new positions. Don’t expect a team wipe with his ultimate every time. You need to be okay with taking out even one enemy.

What makes Cassidy so popular? 

• 6 shooter 
• Roll
• Annoying ultimate

5. Mercy - Support 

Mercy at her last resort. Her big ole blaster.

Mercy is the fifth most played hero with a 4.79% pick rate and a 50.34% win rate. Mercy is a goddess of healing, a puppeteer for damage, and can literally fly if you can control her mechanics. Mercy doesn’t have a primary gun, although she has her pistol that you can switch to from your staff but you want to keep that pistol holstered through most of the game. 

Mercy’s Abilities - 

• Caduceus Staff (Primary) - Left-click to heal enemies. Right-click to increase an ally’s damage inflicted. 
• Caduceus Gun (Secondary) - Switch from your staff to her automatic pistol.
• Guardian Angel (Ability) - Fly towards your ally with this ability. 
• Angelic Descent (Passive/Ability) - Fall very slowly.
• Resurrect (Ability) - Revive a dead teammate. 
• Valkyrie (Ultimate) - Gain ability to fly, and enhance abilities.

Don’t always hide with Mercy. Fly around where the fight is happening to distract enemies. Be patient when you Resurrect. You need to have good game awareness of the number of teammates and enemies, where everyone is, and their cooldowns. 

What makes Mercy popular? 

• Fly
• Her skins are a sight for sore eyes
• Resurrect the dead like Jesus Christ

4. Soldier: 76 - Damage

Soldier: 76 using his ultimate (Aimbot) to probably kill every enemy in his line of sight

Soldier: 76 is the fourth most played hero with a 4.80% pick rate and a 48.12% win rate. Soldier: 76 is always a solid pick and well-rounded hero. Very high dps, side heals, and Tactical Visor is god tier. I never mind it when he’s on my team because I know, even the worst players can still put out a lot of damage. Your aim just can’t be utterly dog poop. 

Soldier: 76 Abilities - 

• Heavy Pulse Rifle (Primary) - Fully-automatic gun 
• Sprint (Ability) - Press button to run faster 
• Biotic Field (Ability) - Deploy a field that heals you and nearby allies in AOE
• Helix Rockets (Ability) - Launch a volley of rockets from your rifle. 
• Tactical Visor (Ultimate) - Auto-aims rifle to targets in sight. 

Definitely not my favorite hero to play, very boring to me. If you are more of a COD player or newer to the game you should start with him. Support your team with the biotic field as much as you can. 

Stay with the tank because he isn’t the best at flanking. There are many other damage heroes that are better for flanking. Use your Tactical Visor as much as possible because you can gain it back quickly. Pop your Helix Rockets constantly to maximize dps.  

What makes Soldier: 76 very popular?

• Easy kit
• Auto-aim ultimate 
• American

3. Kiriko - Support

Kiriko summoning her fox spirit to boost team’s abilities

Kiriko is the third most played hero, drastically more than the former hero, Soldier: 76 with a 6.96% pick rate and a 48.01% win rate. Her kit is unique but complicated. Nevertheless, it’s one of the most fun heroes to learn and master. She has cards that heal, kunai that deal a good amount of damage, teleport through walls to your teammate, and a handy dandy fox.

Kiriko Abilities - 

• Healing Ofuda (Primary) - Channel a burst of healing talismans that can seek targeted allies. 
• Kunai (Secondary) - Thrown projectiles that deals increased critical damage
• Swift Step (Ability) - Teleport directly to ally
• Protection Suzu (Ability) - Throw a projectile charm to make allies become briefly invulnerable and cleansed of most negative effects. 
• Kitsune Rush (Ultimate) - Summon a fox spirit that rushes forward, accelerating movement, attack speed, and decreasing cooldowns of you and allies that follow its path.

Swift Step sensitivity to 100% because most of the time you teleport, it’s to get out of trouble. Healing Ofuda are projectiles, they don’t go through shields. If you have trouble figuring out the range of your Healing Ofuda, look at an ally to see if Swift Step is highlighted, these both have the same distance. 

What makes Kiriko very popular? 

• Teleport through walls
• Kunai are cool
• Fun and challenging kit

2. Ana - Support 

Ana perching on ledge on Route 66

Ana is the second most played hero with a 7.43% pick rate and a 47.91% win rate. Ana is a sniper support hero that has a deadly anti-heal grenade, a really fun to use sleep dart, and an ultimate that can easily turn the tide during any time of a game. She is by far the best support hero if you have really good aim. 

Ana Abilities - 

• Biotic Rifle (Primary) - Long-range rifle that heals allies and damages enemies. Hold the right-mouse button to zoom. 
• Sleep Dart (Ability) - Fires a dart that puts an enemy to sleep
• Biotic Grenade (Ability) - Throws a grenade that heals and increases healing on allies, while damaging and preventing healing on enemies. 
• Nano Boost (Ultimate) - Increases an ally’s damage, while reducing damage taken. 

Try to quickscope more often than holding scope down unless it’s a Pharah or Mercy in the air. If you are paired with someone like Moira, you can assume that she can keep the majority of your team alive, so you can get a couple shots off for dps but always be aware of your allies that flank and need heals. Try to link your Nano Boost with other allies' ultimates like Reinhardt, Genji, and Soldier: 76. You can always Nano Boost your tank to usually gain leverage. 

What makes Ana very popular? 

• Anti-heal is GOATED 
• Sleep flankers and watch them snooze 
• Sniper is just fun 

Moira Moira and Moira - Support

Moira using her Coalescence (the best ultimate in the game) 

Moira is the number one most played hero with a 7.78% pick rate and a 50.22% win rate. She is an absolute beast of a support hero. She is the most annoying hero to go against and the best and easiest hero to play as. She can run lobbies with great healing abilities, and even better dps. If you can keep your enemies close to your crosshairs within range you will wipe lobbies without a drop of sweat. 

Moira Abilities - 

• Biotic Grasp (Primary) - Left-click to heal all allies in front of you. Consumes biotic energy. Right-click for a long range beam weapon. Damage dealt heals you and replenishes your biotic energy. 
• Biotic Orbs (Ability) - Launch a bouncing sphere that either heals nearby allies or damages nearby enemies. 
• Fade (Ability) - Disappear, move faster, become invulnerable, but you cannot shoot. 
• Coalescence (Ultimate) - Fire a beam that heals allies and damages enemies. 

This list can go on and on. I have over 500 hours playing her and she is absolutely a menace. She pairs very well with most healers if not all of them, especially Ana, Baptiste, Zenyatta, and Mercy. Not the greatest with dive tanks like Winston and Wrecking Ball but if you have a Zenyatta or Ana that can heal from long-range, it can work.

Always do two things at once, if that’s using a healing orb then damaging enemies with your biotic grasp, or vice versa. Also, you can double stack orb and grasp to maximize what your team needs. Try to keep enemies in a straight line when you throw orb to deal damage to as many enemies as you can. That’s also the same with allies and healing orb too. 

Fade to escape dicey plays and jump at the end of the fade to launch yourself in the air. The jump usually can’t get you onto higher ground so play around to see where you can jump to in different maps. Throw your healing/damage orb at a wall that will bounce back toward your target to heal/damage it more without having to wait for cooldown. 

You can also Fade back to your team the majority of fades, because that’s when she’s at her weakest. Fade, then throw a healing orb to heal yourself if you’ve taken a lot of damage. The orb is about the same speed if not a tad bit faster than Moira’s walk. 

Usually with all support heroes you need to prioritize heals over dps, but with Moira, she can heal so fast but her biotic energy can deplete fast if you are just healing. Make sure you are doing damage to enemies and sucking the life out of them. 

What makes Moira the most popular hero? 

• Auto succ is GOATED
• Orbs are GOATED 
• Fade is GOATED
• Coalescence is GOATED