One of the most important things about a game like Overwatch is its continuous evolution, both in terms of new content and in refinement of established content, such as characters and maps. As exciting as new heroes can be, it's important to look at the changes to old heroes over the course of the game, and one player looked at those changes very closely indeed.
Twitter user isoanakin was prompted to delve into the history of Overwatch's changes to their characters by an increasing belief among the game's community that powercreep has set in. For those unfamiliar, powercreep is an ongoing problem in many games that stick around for long enough, where the overall power level of components in the game, the playable heroes in this case, rises to such a degree that heroes introduced earlier in the game can't compete with the newer, stronger models.
To test that theory, isoanakin delved into the game's patch notes and began compiling a list of every single buff and nerf to every single hero over the course of the game. The methodology was, by isoanakin's own admission, not exact, but to be fair it was around four years' worth of data to sift through and catalogue. The result was a catalogue of some 351 buffs and 199 nerfs across all heroes over the game's run from inception to present. While this is not the first time someone has delved into Overwatch to find minute details, this is the first time someone has attempted to compile the game's overall power level fluctuation.
The result is by no means a perfect chart of the power level of Overwatch's heroes, as it catalogues the number of of buffs and nerfs without much context. It also only does not account for glitch fixes, although glitches have been known to give Overwatch heroes crazy, if unintended, abilities. Taken as raw data, however, this does indicate a trend towards an increase in raw numbers when it comes to damage, healing, and cooldown reduction.
On the one hand, this is, as mentioned, by no means a definitive answer to Overwatch's power creep question. Changes in the overall power levels of heroes are to be expected as the game changes and new problems in competitive play are addressed for balance. The overall ranking of Overwatch heroes is not the same now as at was a month ago, and it will no doubt continue to change in unpredictable ways.
That said, Blizzard's games are by no means immune to powercreep, and it has seldom been met with enthusiasm by players. In games like Hearthstone, new expansions can completely decimate strategies that took time, effort, and resources to build. With Overwatch, this could point to a troubling trend of skills built over long sessions ultimately becoming useless.
Overwatch is available for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch
Source: isoanakin/Reddit