The Overwatch devs think you're banning the wrong heroes

The Overwatch team has lifted the veil on hero ban rates for its five newcomers, and two members clearly lead the pack, while one seems to be slipping by unnoticed despite a similarly strong win rate. I'm a sucker for stats, and I'm not alone; Blizzard says demand for this kind of hero data breakdown was "a clear winner" in a poll for Weekly Recall topics that it carried out late in 2025. With Overwatch Season 1 now more settled, it's no surprise that Jetpack Cat remains the biggest talking point, but let's see how the numbers stack up.

This latest round of Overwatch stats comes from Blizzard analyst Ben Trautman, who you might remember as statistics specialist 'Captain Planet' if you watched the Overwatch League back in its heyday. Rather than looking across the entire roster of Overwatch characters, this new blog digs into the five additions to the lineup: Jetpack Cat, Domina, Anran, Emre, and Mizuki.

You won't be surprised to hear that Jetpack Cat is top of the FPS game's ban list by a clear margin, being forbidden from Role Queue 5v5 Competitive matches 66.5% of the time on North American servers, 68.8% for the EU, and a whopping 80.7% in South Korea. Not far behind is new tank Domina, however: she's banned 59.8% of the time in NA, 57% in EU, and in 61.3% of South Korean games.

Comparatively, Anran, Emre, and Mizuki's ban rate are tiny, with the latter two hovering close to being always available. Yet Blizzard questions why this is, and in particular why Domina bans have been gradually ticking upwards over time.

"Our balance team believes competitive players might be following the perception that Domina is overpowered, even though her win rate says otherwise," Trautman writes. He speculates that those ban rates may start to fall "as clear counters to Domina emerge," and makes some suggestions to help: "look to aggressive heroes like D.Va and Reinhardt to shut Domina down."

While Emre and Anran were both struggling early on, with the DPS having a particularly tough time at an average win rate of 47.6%, buffs helped to stabilize their performance. Emre got additional primary fire damage, while Anran's Dancing Blaze had its distance raised, and this took almost immediate effect. Conversely, a 12% increase to Domina's ult cost caused her win percentage to drop by less than one point, giving "a good indication that balance changes were needed."

Sneaking under the radar, however, is Mizuki. The new support boasted a 53% win rate out the gate, higher than both Domina and Jetpack Cat, yet his ban rate sits at 1.8% on US servers, 1.6% on EU, and 2.6% in South Korea. He's not quite as brash and in-your-face as Domina and Jetpack Cat, but don't let that fool you - he's quietly turning the tide.

Blizzard also reveals just how strong Jetpack Cat's Territorial and Claws Out perks were before they were hit with the nerf hammer. Those more aggressive options were so dominant that Fika's win rate with them was 7% higher (53% versus 48%) than when using the two alternatives, Headbutt and Transport Shielding. As a comparison point, the win deviation between Wuyang's strongest and weakest pairings is just 3%.

With all that in mind, keep a close watch on Mizuki next time you queue, because he might be Overwatch Season 1's secret killer. I promise I'm not just writing this because I want more chances to play as Domina, although I'll take the wins where I can get them.