On January 28, Overwatch pro Rupal leaked the Season 9 patch notes on stream, with the updates being confirmed as legitimate by some content creators.
The patch, rumored to arrive on February 20, will revamp many heroes by upgrading their health pools significantly – but at the same time, doing damage will now be much easier with an increase to the size of projectiles
Such a radical update has riled the player base up. Some fans are excited about the changes, while others believe they’re going too far.
Overwatch 2 players divided by game-changing Season 9 patch
Across Reddit and social media, members of the Overwatch 2 community began discussing the leak and whether it will be healthy for the game.
Some argued that doing damage in Overwatch is already challenging and opponents don’t realize there’s room to make it easier, yet still rewarding.

Overwatch 2 is getting major changes in Season 9.
“If they make aiming a little easier, but they also nerf the mechanics in the game which directly counter it, the end result may well be the most fun and rewarding patch for strong aimers in years.”
“People have complained about DPS being a cosmetic role and healing being too abundant and too free. These patch notes make shots land more frequently, cause damage received to cut healing potential,” someone else added in another thread.
“The OW devs got balls,” another praised.
Not everyone was on board, though, as some felt the patch will take away some element of skill for those with good aim.

Overwatch 2 is changing forever and fans are mostly excited.
“Personally, I hate the idea of bigger projectiles and more HP when playing a relatively low damage hero like Lucio,” someone complained.
“It shouldn’t be easy to land shots. Give everyone a participation trophy just for queuing into game, and get rid of scoreboard at that point,” added another.
Overwatch 2 streamer Samito voiced his own concerns, noting that Widowmaker will still be able to one-shot with the hitbox increase.
Widow is gonna 1 shot still with bigger hitbox size I am nervous https://t.co/WAETMbicAY
— Samito (@SamitoFPS) January 29, 2024
Of course, such massive changes are definitely something that players may need to experience before jumping to conclusions, but it’s clear that Season 9 is going to completely flip the game on its head when it arrives next month.