Genji nerfs could be coming as Overwatch hero’s win rate skyrockets

Michael Gwilliam
Genji from Overwatch on Eichenwalde

Ever since his massive buffs, Genji has been dominating the Overwatch scene in both ranked and pro play. With his pickrate and winrate now the highest out of any DPS hero, players are wondering if the cyborg ninja will be nerfed in the near future.

Genji’s buffs have turned him into a lethal killing machine lately. Changes to Deflect’s duration, primary fire damage and secondary fire spread have made the hero far deadlier and capable of building Dragon Blade faster.

In pro play, the Paris Eternal emerged victorious in the Overwatch League Summer Showdown tournament largely thanks to prodigy Yeong-han ‘SP9RK1E’ Kim’s performance on Genji.

While SP9RK1E told Dexerto he wants Blizzard to balance the hero “very fairly” and not implement nerfs just because of his skills alone, there’s no disputing how Genji has taken over the ranked environment.

Overwatch's Genji uses Dragon Blade
Genji has been destroying the Overwatch ladder.

Genji’s stats reach new highs

According to the stat-tracking site Overbuff, Genji has the highest pickrate out of any DPS hero when all ranks are factored in at 4.76% and a winrate of 51.72%.

The only heroes with a pickrate higher are Reinhardt, Ana, Zarya, Moira and Mercy. However, when you look only at Grand Master ranks, Genji looks even more impressive with a 56.99% winrate – the third-most in the game.

While all these stats are for the past month, things get even crazier when we hone in on this past week alone. When honing in on the week of July 1 – July 8, the Shimada brother has a whopping 8.05% pickrate in GM – even beating out the likes of Reinhardt.

Overwatch stats for July
Genji’s pickrate and winrate are extremely high.

Additionally, his winrate reaches an absurd 57.76%. Now that players have had time to play around with the Genji buffs, it’s clear that he may be slightly overtuned and the devs may try to reel him in a touch.

There’s no telling on what the developers will do, seeing as the hero was given several major buffs at once, but it’s possible that they adjust either the Shuriken damage or the spread. It’s unlikely they will revert the ability to manually cancel Deflect as that has been a long-requested quality of life change.

Regardless, we’ll have to wait and see just how Blizzard decides to approach balancing Genji and if they have something up their sleeve.

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About The Author

Michael Gwilliam is a senior writer at Dexerto based in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in Overwatch, Smash, influencers, and Twitch culture. Gwilliam has written for sites across Canada including the Toronto Sun. You can contact him at michael.gwilliam@dexerto.com or on Twitter @TheGwilliam