Unfortunately for Overwatch fans, Season 18 of Competitive Play was delayed from its planned start earlier this month. After the short delay, Season 18 was able to begin in earnest last week, and now that Overwatch fans have had the chance to play for a week, we now know the best characters by win rate and role.
These stats, collected by Overwatch Limbo, reveal the characters Overwatch players are most likely to find success with. When it comes to Support characters, the top three characters were Lucio, Moira, and Zenyatta across the board. The top Damage heroes, meanwhile, consist of Symmetra and Doomfist, with Reaper and Mei also proving to be quite popular.
When it comes to tanks, the top characters were the new character Sigma and Zarya, with Orisa popular as well. As Season 18 continues, it's possible that other characters will take their spots, especially if Blizzard releases any balance updates, but otherwise we wouldn't expect the Overwatch season 18 tier list to change too much.
The two characters that more or less dominated their roles were Symmetra and Sigma. In Sigma's case, it's possible that his statistics are inflated because more people are selecting him just because he's new. Symmetra, however, has become a true force to be reckoned with in Overwatch. But while Symmetra is quite popular in the current version of Blizzard's hero-shooter, it didn't always used to be this way.
In fact, longtime Overwatch fans will recall a time when Symmetra was the least-played hero on the entire roster. She was considered a Support class character, but lacked the healing capabilities of her counterparts, and so many felt she was a wasted pick. Blizzard then completely reworked Symmetra not once, but twice, and now she is one of the most dominant characters on the entire Overwatch roster.
Blizzard may consider reworking other underplayed characters in the future, but for now, fans can expect the Overwatch roster to remain fairly stable until BlizzCon 2019. Blizzard may use the event to announce a brand new character that will shake up the meta in a big way, or it may announce a PvE-focused Overwatch 2 instead, which is the prevailing theory.
Overwatch is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch release date of October 15.