Loot Boxes are officially coming back to Overwatch, and you won't have to wait long at all to start opening them up.

As the game races to keep up with Marvel Rivals, the developers announced a slew of new changes coming in 2025 that bring more player choice and a little bit of chaos back into the game.

Stadium is arguably the biggest change announced for Overwatch 2 so far. The new gameplay mode is a best-of-seven romp between two teams of five that’s akin to CounterStrike: Go or Valorant. You’ll earn currency each round, with rotating maps and objectives alternating between Control, Clash, and Push.

Blizzard is finally reimplementing loot boxes into Overwatch 2 after their controversial decision to remove them from the original

Blizzard Entertainment is bringing loot boxes back to Overwatch 2, more than two years after stripping them out of the game. Loot boxes will return in season 15 of Overwatch 2, which launches Feb. 18, Blizzard announced Wednesday during its Spotlight presentation.

Blizzard is making some major changes to Overwatch 2 for its Season 15 update, including adding all new gameplay in the form of a perks system and the return of loot box rewards, on top of the new heroes and skins.

Loot boxes were initially removed during the launch of Overwatch 2. As the game moved to free-to-play, Blizzard seemed more comfortable making money via the in-game shop and battle pass purchases instead of loot boxes. Loot boxes were also quite controversial thanks to their association with gambling and regulation efforts from government bodies.

Blizzard is bringing back loot boxes in Overwatch 2 starting with Season 15. In Season 16, hero bans will be introduced in Competitive Play, with map voting coming at a later date.

The latest Overwatch 2 Spotlight stream brought a slew of major updates regarding the future of Blizzard’s hero shooter. In addition to a pair of new Heroes, upcoming seasons of Overwatch 2 will see the addition of Perks, new Competitive formats, and the return of Loot Boxes.

Blizzard is continuing to experiment with several other play modes, including 6v6 and Overwatch Classic. On the former front, more events are on the way, and Blizzard is planning to launch a 6v6 competitive open queue, with a maximum of two tanks per team.