Overwatch Most Played Heroes by competitive tier Season 20 - January 2020
The top 15 most played Overwatch heroes in this meta: January, Season 20. Find out the most popular support, tank, and DPS heroes at each skill tier.
Blizzard has not released an Overwatch API to access the data of all players in the game, so this article displays no official info. There are several websites that gather data from their users, and I decided to utilize the statistics provided by Overbuff as it is the most popular one.
Jeff Kaplan shared the official data on season 9, and the figures were mostly similar to the ones available on Overbuff. We can trust the data even it is isn’t completely accurate.
I have published updated data (based only on PC players) during each season. Check out all the previous meta reports.
Past Meta Report: December 2019
More: Updated Overwatch Hero Tier List
Most popular heroes by rank
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| # | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond | Master | GrandMaster |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moira | Moira | Reinhardt | Reinhardt | Reinhardt | Baptiste | Baptiste |
| 2 | Reinhardt | Reinhardt | Moira | Moira | Baptiste | Orisa | Sigma |
| 3 | Mercy | Mercy | Ana | Ana | Ana | Sigma | Orisa |
| 4 | Orisa | Zarya | Zarya | Baptiste | Moira | Hanzo | Hanzo |
| 5 | Baptiste | Ana | Baptiste | Zarya | Sigma | Reinhardt | Zenyatta |
| 6 | Junkrat | Baptiste | Mercy | McCree | Hanzo | Ana | Wrecking Ball |
| 7 | Ana | Orisa | McCree | Mercy | Zarya | McCree | Mei |
| 8 | Lúcio | Sigma | Sigma | Hanzo | Orisa | Lúcio | Lúcio |
| 9 | Reaper | Junkrat | Orisa | Sigma | McCree | Zenyatta | Reinhardt |
| 10 | Zarya | Reaper | Roadhog | Roadhog | Mercy | Wrecking Ball | Ana |
| 11 | Sigma | Lúcio | Hanzo | Orisa | Lúcio | Moira | Widowmaker |
| 12 | D.Va | McCree | Reaper | Genji | Roadhog | Mercy | Mercy |
| 13 | Roadhog | Roadhog | Lúcio | Lúcio | Genji | Widowmaker | McCree |
| 14 | Hanzo | Hanzo | Genji | Wrecking Ball | Wrecking Ball | Roadhog | Brigitte |
| 15 | Mei | Mei | Junkrat | Reaper | Widowmaker | Mei | Tracer |
Hero pick rate at GrandMaster
In the previous months, I have featured several meta heroes, and explained their impact in the gameplay at high ranks. For more info, check out the following reports:
Support popularity
Symmetra is still included among the supports because of the statistical tool used. Removing her would have caused problems with the data.
| Hero | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond | Master | GrandMaster |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moira | 10,7% | 10,8% | 10,1% | 8,2% | 6,2% | 3,5% | 1,4% |
| Baptiste | 4,9% | 5,5% | 6,3% | 7,6% | 9,3% | 12,7% | 14,9% |
| Ana | 4,5% | 5,6% | 7,0% | 8,1% | 7,7% | 5,8% | 3,0% |
| Mercy | 7,6% | 6,8% | 6,2% | 5,1% | 3,9% | 3,3% | 2,8% |
| Lucio | 4,2% | 3,7% | 3,1% | 3,3% | 3,9% | 4,3% | 4,0% |
| Zenyatta | 1,6% | 1,4% | 1,5% | 1,7% | 2,5% | 4,0% | 5,9% |
| Brigitte | 1,4% | 1,4% | 1,2% | 1,2% | 1,4% | 1,8% | 2,7% |
Brigitte is becoming the new best healer
In January, Brigitte’s pick rate reached 2.6% at GrandMaster, and in the past week it went up to 3.9%, while also attaining an astonishing 58.4% win rate.
Originally, Brigitte was a hybrid support designed to deal with the GOATS meta. She was (and still is) quite tanky and a direct counter to most mobile offense heroes (such as Tracer), but her healing output was poor if compared to all the other supports.
Rework caused by role queue meta
The meta changed over time, and after the introduction of the role queue, Blizzard decided to rework her:
Brigitte is less tough and oppressive (shield health reduced from 500 to 200, stun duration decreased from 0.9 to 0.75 seconds), but her healing output increased greatly for balance purposes - as it is no longer possible to pick three healers.
Inspire’s total healing amount increased to 130 (initially, it was 80), and Repair Pack now has 3 charges for a total of 360 health (before, it had a single 150 HP charge).
Top meta supports nerfed
No more direct changes affected Brigitte in the past months, but, at the same time, most of the meta supports got nerfed:
Moira was the best healer in the game, but patch 1.43.0.0 in December reduced Biotic Grasp’s healing from 4 to 3.25 (80 HP/s to 65 HP/s).
Currently, Baptiste holds the crown, but the last PTR patch decreased his heal explosion via Biotic Launcher (secondary fire) from 60 to 50. The nerf will probably hit the live client in February.
Update: Blizzard published patch 1.44.0.1 during the night, so the changes above are already live.
The impact of armor
In a few weeks, Brigitte will be the new queen among the supports. Honestly, she is already almost as strong as Baptiste because she also provides armor:
Armor got nerfed in January 2019 when Blizzard decreased the armor damage reduction from 5 to 3, but this change was reverted in December.
Starting from 1.34.0.1, in March 2019, beam-type damage is reduced by 20% when hitting armor.
Brigitte is the only supports in the game who also gives armor, via Repair Pack and the ultimate Rally.
Gameplay tips
The following video by KarQ - released after all Brigitte’s changes in 2019 - features Violet, a player who dominated the NA ladder (rank 1, 2, and 3 of the top 500) by playing the reworked Brigitte.
It contains several tips on how to play her and how to behave against all the other heroes. In particular, he emphasizes the importance of shield dancing. Self-healing from Inspire got halved, and the shield is a lot weaker, so it is necessary to adjust her playstyle.
You must re-learn when to take and to inflict damage, and when to use your shield to block damage.
Proccing Inspire is a priority, but preventing the shield from breaking is also crucial, so you must understand when to take cover to recharge it.
I warmly recommend watching the whole video if you intend to learn Brigitte and rank up with her in the present competitive season.
Brigitte’s strengths and the current meta
Brigitte is a melee support able to stay near the frontline to provide extra pressure and help her tanks. Moreover, her attacks are not blocked by barriers.
She works well paired with Reinhardt/Zarya, and Repair Pack is of great help to dive heroes such as Doomfist, Tracer, and Winston (the latter also increased his pick rate in the past week and became the top 4 tank).
Brigitte’s healing output is considerable as long as you stay alive and proc Inspire.
Generally, survivability is not an issue because she is the tankiest support in Overwatch, and Shield Bash counters divers, mobile heroes, and many ultimates (such as Reaper’s Death Blossom).
Proccing Inspire is also relatively easy with Whip Shot, which is also one of the best non-ultimate utility abilities as it is a long-range knockback that also inflicts 70 damage on a low 4-second cooldown.
Rally is a versatile ultimate that can be used to initiate fights or counter them, and to negate potential deaths caused by several ultimates, such as Tracer’s Pulse Bomb, Orisa’s Supercharger, Genji’s Dragonblade, Sigma’s Gravitic Flux.
Finally, while a support like Lucio is only able to provide AoE healing, Brigitte complements Inspire with the single-target burst healing of Repair Pack.
Right now, Brigitte’s main issue is that she requires her whole skillset to be competitive, so at lower ranks she will often be a worse picks than many other easier heroes to play. The situation should improve after a few months, if she remains a top pick.
Tank popularity
| Hero | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond | Master | GrandMaster |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reinhardt | 7,7% | 9,5% | 10,3% | 10,7% | 9,9% | 7,1% | 3,6% |
| Zarya | 4,0% | 5,7% | 6,5% | 6,6% | 5,4% | 2,4% | 0,6% |
| Sigma | 3,7% | 4,1% | 4,1% | 4,6% | 6,0% | 8,6% | 12,2% |
| Orisa | 5,2% | 4,6% | 3,8% | 3,7% | 5,2% | 8,8% | 12,1% |
| Roadhog | 3,3% | 3,5% | 3,7% | 4,0% | 3,7% | 2,8% | 1,3% |
| Wrecking Ball | 2,1% | 2,1% | 2,2% | 2,6% | 3,0% | 3,8% | 5,4% |
| Winston | 1,8% | 1,7% | 1,6% | 1,5% | 1,5% | 1,3% | 1,3% |
| D.Va | 3,7% | 2,5% | 1,6% | 1,0% | 0,8% | 0,6% | 0,8% |
DPS popularity
The graph shows data on the top 8 most picked DPS heroes at all ranks.
| Hero | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Platinum | Diamond | Master | GrandMaster |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hanzo | 2,9% | 3,1% | 3,7% | 4,7% | 5,7% | 7,2% | 8,4% |
| Mei | 2,8% | 2,6% | 2,3% | 1,9% | 2,0% | 2,8% | 4,1% |
| Widowmaker | 1,2% | 1,1% | 1,4% | 2,0% | 2,6% | 2,8% | 2,9% |
| McCree | 2,8% | 3,6% | 4,7% | 5,5% | 5,1% | 4,5% | 2,7% |
| Tracer | 1,1% | 0,9% | 1,2% | 1,5% | 1,7% | 2,0% | 2,0% |
| Doomfist | 1,4% | 1,5% | 1,7% | 2,0% | 2,2% | 2,2% | 2,0% |
| Genji | 2,4% | 2,3% | 2,8% | 3,4% | 3,1% | 2,4% | 1,3% |
| Torbjorn | 1,3% | 0,8% | 0,6% | 0,5% | 0,5% | 0,6% | 0,9% |
Hero pick rate considering all ranks
