We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Overwatch 2 competitive changes highlight how MMR actually works

Plenty Overwatch 2 competitive changes have been outlined by Blizzard for the FPS game, including how MMR and matchmaking overall will function going forward.

Overwatch 2 competitive changes highlight how MMR actually works

Plenty of Overwatch 2 competitive changes are on the way for Blizzard’s team-based FPS game, as the development team has outlined how ranked, MMR, and more will change in another update blog following on from Aaron Keller’s recent post about the future of the shooter.

This post from Blizzard follows an initial discussion of ranks and rewards in an Overwatch 2 dev update from director Aaron Keller, with the focus now shifting to addressing matchmaking plans, MMR, and short-term vs long-term goals.

The biggest bombshell here is an explanation of how MMR (your matchmaking ranking, which determines your skill level and who you play with) works, as it apparently isn’t directly impacted by performance in Overwatch 2.

One of the many questions asks: “So you don’t take the number of eliminations, damage dealt, healing provided, or any other scoreboard stats to adjust my MMR after each match?” the Q&A reads.

Blizzard answers with: “In Overwatch 2, your MMR adjustment after every match is not impacted by your performance in each match (regardless of your skill tier). This is for a few reasons. We don’t want players to be focused on doing things other than trying to focus on the objectives and win the match. Dealing the most damage or getting kills won’t help your team if your actions don’t help them push the payload or capture a control point. Also, for some heroes, especially those in the support role, it can be challenging to determine if the numbers they produce reflect their skill.”

Overwatch 2 competitive changes highlight how MMR actually works

For Overwatch 2 Season 3 you can expect changes to the number of wins between updates, as it will decrease from seven to five, and losses from 20 to 15, while “Season 4 will include additional information about your current wins and losses on the competitive update screens.”

Blizzard is also making some general changes to skill disparity, which should see parties or individuals that join up for matches have a much smaller skill gap – so you won’t have experts partying up with newbies, for example. The team also acknowledges one-sided matches but says that any sort of fix is quite a way off.

“Our first step has been to study the problem and understand the various factors that can cause one-sided matches, and we’re planning to share what we learn with you in a developer blog down the road.”

You can also expect MMR matching to change, as instead of just working to match MMR across a team, Blizzard also wants specific opposing roles to match up across the two teams. So for example, the two tanks in a match should eventually have similar MMR, along with the other roles, in an effort to make matches more balanced.

Blizzard wants to make Overwatch 2 ranked and normal matches as fair as possible, with all the above changes moving toward that end. “We firmly believe the most fun games of Overwatch are when they are fair, and our team is committed to discovering and implementing new changes and updates that align our game with that goal,” the studio writes.

In the meantime, you can take a look at our Overwatch 2 tier list that tells you who the best heroes for each role and scenario are, and you can be kept in the loop with the Overwatch 2 PvE release date as well.