Game modes explained

The modes

• Mode

  Escort

  Goal: Push a payload along a route while the other team tries to stop it.

  Tip: One team attacks, one defends. Stay near the payload: it moves only while an attacker stands close to it.

• Mode

  Hybrid

  Goal: First capture a point, then escort a payload.

  Tip: Two phases in one map. Win the capture, then move on to the payload.

• Mode

  Control

  Goal: Fight over one point in the middle. Hold it long enough to win the round.

  Tip: Both teams fight for the same spot. Stand on it when your team is winning.

• Mode

  Push

  Goal: Take control of a robot and push it toward the enemy base.

  Tip: Both teams want the same robot. Stick with it and stay alive.

• Mode

  Flashpoint

  Goal: Capture a series of points that unlock in a changing order.

  Tip: Points appear across the map. Move together to the next one.

• Mode

  Clash

  Goal: Capture a line of objectives, one active at a time, on a mirrored map.

  Tip: Blizzard removed Clash from Quick Play in February 2026, so you are unlikely to meet it in normal play. It may return.

Mode icons © Blizzard Entertainment, via OverFast API.

5v5 vs 6v6

Overwatch has both. The team size depends on the queue you pick: Role Queue is 5v5 and Open Queue is 6v6, in both Quick Play and Competitive. 6v6 has been the standard team size for Open Queue since early 2025. Blizzard can change which modes are available in future updates, so the queue description in the game is always the final word.

5v5 Role Queue

Quick Play and Competitive. Each team has 1 Tank, 2 Damage and 2 Support. You queue for a role and stay within that role for the match.

6v6 Open Queue

Quick Play and Competitive. There is no fixed role lineup: players choose their roles and can swap between them during the match. Open Queue uses 6v6 as its standard team size.

Mystery Heroes, where the game picks a random hero for you, is also 6v6.

• The objective and your role's job stay the same in both.
• With more players in each fight, there are usually more abilities, damage sources and healing to track, so fights can feel busier.
• A hero can feel slightly different between the two, because Blizzard tunes some heroes separately for 6v6.

Season 5 arcade and Stadium queues

Mystery Madness: Graveyard Games is a separate event: 5v5 with guaranteed 1 Tank, 2 Damage and 2 Support, in best-of-three Control. It adds powers on death. Ordinary Mystery Heroes restores its three-Tank maximum.

Stadium Quick Play is now Open Queue with a required Tank and limits of 1 Tank, 2 Damage and 3 Supports. Stadium Competitive keeps its existing format. Stadium items and event powers are outside the scoreboard analysis methodology.

Common questions