Jeff Kaplan hints at future of Overwatch’s Competitive Open Queue

Overwatch’s Competitive Open Queue has been a hit with players ⁠— more than even Blizzard expected ⁠— and if comments from Jeff Kaplan are anything to go off, the mode might have a bright future within the FPS title.

The Competitive Open Queue mode in Overwatch has been a much-appreciated throwback for the game’s veterans. No role lock, no worries ⁠— teams have been running all kinds of weird and wacky compositions, and yes, GOATS has seen a resurgence.

However, because it’s an Arcade mode, players aren’t expecting it to stick around for much longer. On the numbers though, Competitive Open Queue could have a bright future.

Jeff Kaplan hit the forums on April 16 to answer players’ concerns about the mode, and hinted that it could be staying around for longer than expected.

“We’re discussing the future of the mode right now,” he said.

While he didn’t expand on whether the mode will become a permanent fixture, or just be rotated through Arcade more often, players can look forward to seeing it more in the future.

He also dropped some statistics that might surprise players. Competitive Open Queue is performing well above expectations in all regions across all platforms.

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It’s the most popular Arcade queue in every region except North America, and has accounted for more than 10% of all hours played across multiple platforms.

In certain regions, like Korea, it has peaked at over 25% playtime, beating out Quick Play and only coming in second to regular ranked.

Kaplan did emphasise that these statistics are based on one day’s numbers alone, however noted these trends have been continuing, and that’s why Blizzard are looking at the mode’s future in-game.

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“It’s interesting to see what regions and platforms are responding to the different modes in the game,” he said.

So, if you’ve been enjoying the throwback to Competitive Play ⁠— the way it used to be ⁠— you might be able to get back on the grind like nothing ever changed permanently in the future.