Summary
- Overwatch 2 6v6 tests face long queue times due to lack of tank players, causing frustration among DPS and support roles.
- The tank role in 6v6 is unpopular, leading to near-instant queues for tanks while DPS and support wait times can reportedly exceed 10 minutes.
- Overwatch 2 plans to address queue issues by introducing a new 6v6 Min 1, Max 3 game mode to allow more flexibility in hero selection.
The 6v6 gameplay experiments in Overwatch 2 are running into the timeless co-op video game problem of not having enough tanks, increasing queue times for other players to frustrating lengths. It seems the 6v6 tests in Overwatch 2 have not been able to avoid the same role queue issues the original game always struggled with.
Overwatch 2 has officially begun its 6v6 experiments, with the current 2-2-2 role queue team comp game mode available until January 7, 2025. A second test has already been scheduled for the new year, with the Min 1, Max 3 game mode running from January 21 to February 4.
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However, now that the first 6v6 test has been underway for about a week, players are encountering a familiar problem. With the initial hype dying down, queue times for damage and support heroes have been growing longer and longer, with Overwatch 2 fans like Drunken_Queen on Reddit claiming they found wait times of up to 10 minutes for a single match. Tanks, on the other hand, benefit from instantaneous queues, indicating there is a dearth of players looking to fill that role.
Overwatch 2 6v6 DPS and Support Queues are Too Long
During peak hours, Overwatch 2 queue times for these roles in 6v6 are much lower than Drunken_Queen’s report – at press time, the projected wait was between two and five minutes for both roles, while tanks were consistently under a minute. In contrast, 5v5’s queue times were all less than a minute for all roles. While Drunken_Queen’s queue times may be slightly exaggerated, or taken specifically during off-peak hours, their claim is no less true – there are not enough tanks playing 6v6.
Ironically, the Overwatch 2 developers said this exact thing would happen before the 6v6 tests began. According to Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller in his initial extrapolations on 5v5 vs. 6v6, combating long queue times was one of the biggest reasons for the shift to 5v5, and he expected the 6v6 tests would corroborate that. Now that they are officially underway, it seems Keller was correct in his assessment.
Fans offered speculation on the reasoning behind this deficit of tank players. Some surmised the role was simply not fun to play, or that 6v6 itself was not as popular as its vocal fans would have suggested. Regardless of the truth, Blizzard is already working on a solution. The second Overwatch 2 6v6 test, Min 1, Max 3, does away with role queues in favor of letting players flex between one and three heroes in each role. In a recent Overwatch 2 Director's Take, Keller said he believes this mode will “eliminate the queue time issues that we had in the past” with 6v6, so fans will have to see what the wait looks like the second experiment.
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Overwatch 2 is an always-on and ever-evolving free-to-play, team-based action game set in an optimistic future, where every match is the ultimate 5v5 battlefield brawl. Power up your railgun and disrupt the battlefield as Sojourn, or yield your axe and command attention as Junker Queen. Battle to take control of a robot and move it toward the enemy base in the new Push Mode. Bring the fight to new destinations across the globe in iconic locations like New York, Rome, Monte Carlo and Rio. Daily challenges and frequent updates mean there is always something new to play.
