The best Overwatch 2 maps make the best use of every inch and create multiple paths for both teams to experiment and improvise. What that looks like is different depending on which mode you’re playing. The cramped confines of an elimination map would be a disaster for deathmatch, for example. But whatever your objective, there’s no shortage of excellent maps in Blizzard’s multiplayer game. There’s almost no bad map – almost, because Lunar Colony and Paris exist – but we decided to rank them all anyway.
At the time of publication, Blizzard just launched Overwatch 2 season 4, and the most recent map addition is Antarctica.
Best Escort maps in Overwatch 2
There really aren’t any bad escort maps, though some certainly lend themselves to more exciting matches than others and have a greater degree of variety in their designs.
Route 66
Route 66 has the best of everything. A narrow opening section fraught with challenges for attackers and defenders alike turns into an open middle dotted with ledges and buildings for guerrilla-style combat. The factory in the final section ends with a narrow corridor where the match could go either way. It’s visually interesting and, best of all, balanced enough that any hero stands a strong chance of success.
Rialto
Rialto’s opening section is one of the strongest in the game, with the attacking team flooding into a cramped square overlooked by balconies and easily held with a strong tank on the bridge. It’s a struggle to push past, but once they do, the rest of the map quickly alternates between open squares, narrow streets, and bombed-out buildings. It never gets stale, and the final stretch’s open arena and multiple sightlines make it a particular highlight.
Dorado
Dorado takes the fight to the streets and then to the markets before doing a very on-brand-for-Overwatch thing and ending in a factory. It’s a common setup several maps use, but Dorado manages to feel fresh and interesting with cleverly placed ledged, covered walkways, and hiding spots to keep it from just being one long street. The factory is a high point as well. It’s bigger than most, with multiple levels, and a curved path that’s perfect for a last-ditch comeback on the defending team.
Shambali Monastery
The Shambali Monastery was basically built for Ramattra, as the narrow confines of its streets and cave paths are the perfect complement to his long-range and melee abilities. It’s literally and metaphorically an uphill push for the attacking team, though side routes and multi-story buildings mean defenders have to stay on their toes as well. There’s nothing particularly outstanding about the monastery compared to some other maps, but nothing unpleasant either.
Watchpoint Gibraltar
The start of Watchpoint Gibraltar is like an advertisement for how Overwatch plays, with landscaping and features that suit every hero crammed into a tiny space. The downside is that it’s the highlight of the map. The rest is comparatively bland, and the middle segment skews too heavily in favor of units with vertical abilities. A good Widowmaker on a ledge or an accurate Pharah has far too strong a chance of stopping your advance.
Havana
Havana’s biggest draw is the central warehouse, where pretty much every fight devolves into absolute chaos. It’s a massive open space with hallways on all sides and a row of boilers dividing it in half with two chokepoint passages. Office spaces and walkways are ideal for snipers, and the spacious exit point is a challenge for both sides. It’s just a shame the rest of the map is plain and tame.
Junker Town
Junker Town is a bit of a weird one. The first section borrows from Route 66’s midpoint with its buildings and open path, but the midpoint turns into a narrow road with one long ledge as its only feature. Rarely has there been a match for me where anything exciting happens in this stretch, and the attacking team almost always pushes through. The only time things usually get interesting is at the end. The factory area might look bland, but it’s the perfect spot for a comeback.
Circuit Royal
Circuit Royal is similar to Junker Town in the sense that its best parts are at the beginning and in the final push. A good defending team can make life miserable for the attacking team on the broad avenue where the payload’s path starts, and the building at the end has just enough verticality and alternate passages to keep defenders on their toes. The middle bit, however, is just a switchback road up a hill, a portion the attacking team nearly always pushes through with ease.
Best Hybrid maps in Overwatch 2
Hybrid maps have the challenging task of combining a good control point with an equally strong escort route. Though a few fall short of reaching that goal, hybrid maps are where you’ll find some of the best that the multiplayer game has to offer.
King's Row
King’s Row is easily one of the best maps in the game, thanks to a handful of seemingly simple touches that elevate it above other escort stages. The payload sits behind a roundabout and a wall that blocks half the path and helps and hinders both sides in equal measure.
The city’s narrow streets aren’t unique among Overwatch maps, but a maze of alleys and several buildings with open balconies give you plenty of chances to surround and surprise your foes. The end is where I’ve had some of my best matches, a small factory with a few sharp turns thrown in the main route, and enough variation where any hero can make your dreams of victory a nightmare. King’s Row is Overwatch at its best.
Midtown
Midtown might not have the visual variety or the same ingenuity built into every part, but it’s still a close second as the best hybrid map. The objective sits in a parking lot open to attack on all sides before moving to an area that’s more cleverly designed than it looks. The underpass is like Black Forest’s tunnel, but with more ways to counter the opposing team thanks to the hallways and buildings on either side. The final push raises the stakes for both teams, as it’s easy to get flanked or distracted and lose sight of the payload.
Plus Midtown just looks cool.
Eichenwalde
Eichenwalde’s buildings make this a standout map. There’s so many rundown houses outside the castle keep that you almost can’t keep track of enemies and allies alike, and the gatehouse by the first checkpoint is always a hotly contested point thanks to its corridors and an easy way to get behind foes from above.
A busted bridge and some alternate paths make the road between the gate and castle more interesting than its plain layout would suggest. While the castle keep was clearly designed for teams with two tanks, Overwatch 2’s greater emphasis on speed and damage means your final showdown in the great hall is never dull.
Numbani
Numbani is a challenging map that skews slightly in favor of defenders, as its narrow streets and high balconies make creating natural bottlenecks simple. Daring players can make smart use of side routes through shops to cause mayhem before the final, tense push at the end. The final segment is a bit uninspired compared to the rest of the map, admittedly, but the sudden change to open spaces adds a welcome degree of flexibility before the match ends.
Paraiso
Paraiso is another one you could describe as “a bit odd.” The first and third sections afford plenty of variety in how both sides approach the objective, but the middle path is strangely skewed. Most of the buildings and cubbies here don’t even overlook the main path. It’s like one big setup for the final push into the factory.
Hollywood
Hollywood’s biggest strength is the fun sets and props, which hide how much it’s almost a reskin of King’s Row’s second half, even down to the production studio being shaped pretty darn close to the King’s Row factory. Still, getting the drop on enemies in a wild west setting and stopping their progress in a studio parking lot is pretty fun even just for the novelty of it.
Blizzard World
Blizzard World isn’t a bad map, but it’s not as good as it could be either. The first section is essentially just a straight road to the objective, which defenders can hold too easily, and hardly anyone makes use of the side routes in the second section. The final push is easily the best part, with some excellent vantage points and ways to disrupt the enemy team’s ranks.
Best Control maps
Control maps come in sets of three, each a variation on a similar theme. The most interesting control maps drop the control point in an unusual place or give you multiple routes to access it. Here, too, there really aren’t any bad maps. Even our lower-ranked arenas are still a blast.
Antarctica
Blizzard added Antarctica in Overwatch 2’s third season, and it’s one of the more exciting maps – even if players don’t always make use of its strengths. All three maps have winding corridors surrounding the control point, giving your team the perfect opportunity to surprise the enemy or lure them away from the objective.
Overwatch 2’s emphasis on DPS means even stray healers like Moira or Lifeweaver can cause plenty of mischief just by dropping in unannounced. Most of the action typically happens on the objective anyway, but when you get a group that uses the map smartly, it’s excellent.
Busan
Busan gets bonus points for its variety – an army base, a downtown market, and a rural shrine – and the unique strategies each map requires. The base is a particular favorite, with its open center point usually turning into a chaotic mess, though the shrine is a standout as well. The simple touch of pillars and a roof on the shrine provides some handy cover and makes you work a little bit harder to win.
Lijiang Tower
Every map in the Lijiang Tower set is a banger, even though two of them kind of repeat the same structure – stick the control point a little to the side and make it a closed off area. It’s hard to complain when the structure works so well, though. Keeping hold of the objective is never easy, and victory always feels a little more rewarding as a result.
Oasis
Oasis layouts are simple, but effective. The City Center and Gardens drop the control point in the middle of a large, open area, and while there’s a lot of unused, open space, these maps inevitably turn into heated battles. The University has a bit too much unused space as well, but the routes around the control point and the handy escape route underneath it make this map the strongest of the three.
Nepal
Nepal is an imbalanced set of maps. The action always centers on the control point in the village, and while there are other routes, they’re too far away from the objective to be very useful. Skilled teams can block opponents out of the village center rather too easily as well and keep them trapped by the ship. The sanctum, however, is brilliant in its simplicity, with its corridors, pits, and central objective open to attack from all sides.
Ilios
Ilios is a bit of a mixed bag. The ruins are great, and placing the objective in a sunken area in the center creates opportunities for some hectic combat. The well and lighthouse have a lot of unused space, though, and a good Symmetra or Torbjorn has too much of an advantage with smart turret placement.
Best Push maps in Overwatch 2
The ideal push map keeps things interesting no matter where the robot is. There aren’t many push maps yet, but of the three, one stands quite a bit higher above the other two.
Colosseo
The robot might follow a fixed path, but nearly every spot in Colosseo could host a pitched fight between teams or flankers. It’s one of those rare maps that makes fantastic use of all its spaces. Even the giant corridor outside the Colosseum itself, where you’ll spend most of your time, has half a dozen or more strategies you can use to push forward, despite just being a long hallway.
New Queen Street
New Queen Street may not have quite the same complexity as Colosseo, but it still makes for some fun matches. Surprise is the standout feature, with several ways to flank an enemy team and sow discord in their ranks or pick off an outlying healer. The back alley near the starting point is one of the best spots for this. A player with good aim can take down the robot’s escorts before they even realize what happened.
Esperança
Esperança is a twisty maze whose best parts are in the middle where the robot starts. An abundance of walkways, windows, ledges, staircases, and cubbies turn this part of the map into a chaotic mess until someone finally grabs the ‘bot and moves on. The rest of the map isn’t quite as exciting, with far fewer features, and the end is actually a bit boring – a plain, straight stretch of road that’s almost impossible to defend.
Best Arcade maps in Overwatch 2
Overwatch 2‘s arcade section is home to several maps that never see the light of day in ranked and casual modes. This is where you come to play Deathmatch, Elimination, and often seasonal event modes in the FPS game, so if you don’t recognize any of these, mosey over to the arcade section sometime and give its modes a try.
Best Assault maps in Overwatch 2
Assault didn’t have a smooth transition to Overwatch 2‘s 5v5 structure. None of its maps hold up particularly well without two tanks, though with the right team combination, you can still get a glimpse of how it used to be.
Temple of Anubis
The Temple of Anubis feels like the most balanced assault map. Even though it has the same bottleneck problem as Hanamura, it handles the situation better by giving you viable alternative routes. Even poorly optimized teams stand a chance on this map.
Hanamura
Hanamura gives certain defending teams a significant advantage. Almost every path forward turns into a bottleneck at some point. A turret from Torbjorn or Symmetra can hold an attacking team at bay until the timer runs out, and it’s too easy to cover other routes with one or two strong attackers.
Lunar Colony
The Lunar Colony is sort of fine, but it’s a bit basic and favors attackers too heavily. Objectives are open on all sides, and the paths leading to them are too large to effectively defend with just five allies. That’s good news for attackers, but a nightmare for defenders unless more than one player chooses a tank.
Paris
Paris, ironically, works better as a deathmatch map while you’re waiting to join a game. It’s just not that interesting, even though it plays well.
Best Elimination maps in Overwatch 2
Elimination mode forbids revivals, so once you’re gone, you’re gone. The maps are smaller and force teams together more often as a result, with a few shining stars that work exceptionally well in this mode.
Watchpoint Antarctica
The Watchpoint Antarctica map is almost good enough to be a main mode map. It’s rife with hiding places to dip into and ambush foes from, and the two facilities are perfect strongholds when you’re tired of running.
Necropolis
The Necropolis is tricky and frustrating, which is partly what makes it so good. A deadly fall is always nearby, but so is an escape route or a bottleneck to stop an entire enemy team. Skilled players can make good use of hiding places and rooftops to get the drop on opponents and squeeze out a win even at a disadvantage.
Castillo
Castillo shouldn’t work as well as it does. The premise is almost too simple, with a large circular town center, a few outlying paths, and some buildings you can duck into. It turns out that’s all you really need, though. Teams who cooperate to take down opponents are vulnerable to outliers who pick them off from the side, and going it alone has a 50/50 chance of turning into disaster or victory. It’s a surprisingly varied experience.
The Black Forest
The Black Forest map works better as an event map than it does an Elimination map. The action almost always centers on the tunnel connecting both sides of the arena. That’s fine in theory, but it limits which heroes actually work well.
Best Deathmatch maps in Overwatch 2
Deathmatch is Overwatch 2‘s free-for-all mode, and a good Deathmatch map needs to strike a tricky balance between complexity and opportunities to attack. Pretty much every Deathmatch map does that, though two in particular stand out as exceptional.
Malevento
Malevento is a fantastic mess, a sprawling ttown crammed into a tiny area. You’ve got bistros, ancient walls and towers, a cathedral with a staircase that makes for an excellent showdown spot, libraries, and open roads all jumbled up together. It’s more coherent than Kanezaka, with multiple flashpoints where three or more players clash in a hectic shootout. It’s brilliant fun and the perfect deathmatch stage.
Kanezaka
Kanezaka’s cramped streets, back alleys, and hideyholes make it a brilliant Deathmatch map. The city center is a maze of narrow streets and cramped buildings, and you can never know whether that quick dash from one place of cover to another is actually safe or if you’re rushing to your doom.
Petra
Petra doesn’t make quite as much use of its space as Kanezaka, but the layout still lends itself to some heated battles. Verticality is key here, with ledges and nooks that let you snipe foes from afar and jumpads for a quick escape. The large, empty spaces mean slower units will have a more difficult time here, though.
Chateau Guillard
Chateau Guillard’s biggest strength is its surprise dungeon, where the lack of escape routes adds an air of tension to encounters. Most of them turn into multiplayer brawls, and it’s a good spot to stand on the edge and pick off players fighting each other. The rest of the mansion just isn’t that interesting, though.
The best Overwatch 2 maps overall
These are our picks for the best of the best, without regard to category.
- King’s Row
- Malevento
- Colosseo
- Midtown
- Eichenwalde
- Route 66
- Antarctica
- Busan
- Necropolis
- Rialto
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
