Overwatch Role Queue vs Open Queue (2026): 5v5, 6v6 and Your Ranks

Overwatch has two ranked queues, and they're different games. Role Queue is five against five with fixed roles and a separate rank for each; Open Queue is six against six with no role limits at all and a single rank. Which one you play changes your team, your rank and even the size of the fight. This guide compares them as they stand on 2 November 2026: how each queue works, how many players use it according to Blizzard's own figures, how ranks, placements, groups and leaderboards differ, what the 2026 queue experiments were, and which queue to climb in.

The two ranked queues at a glance

Hero counts from Blizzard's hero roster, read 1 November 2026; player shares from Blizzard's Director's Take on formats.

Role Queue: 5v5 with a rank per role

In Role Queue you choose your role before you queue, and every team is built the same way: one Tank, two Damage and two Support. Each role carries its own rank, placed with its own ten matches and moved by its own results, so being Diamond on Support and Gold on Tank is perfectly possible. End-of-season titles say which role you earned them in, such as Champion Tank.

Two details matter in 2026. Tanks get +150 bonus health in Role Queue modes, part of the role passives Blizzard reworked on 10 February 2026 alongside the new sub-roles (our sub-roles and perks guide covers them). And a hero's role can change: on 6 October 2026 Sombra moved from Damage to Support, so Sombra players now queue, and rank, as Support. The full list is in every hero by role.

Open Queue: 6v6 with any heroes

Open Queue drops the role lock. Six players a side pick any heroes they like, so a team can run several tanks, no tank or five damage heroes. Blizzard's own player figures call it "Ranked Open Queue 6v6", and its patch notes fix bugs in "6v6 Open Queue". You hold one Open Queue rank, whatever you play.

Six-a-side play has history: Blizzard ran a 6v6 Role Queue experiment (two of each role) in December 2024. In 2026, 6v6 lives in Open Queue and in Unranked modes such as Mystery Heroes. The flexibility suits players who switch roles mid-match or who want to play what the fight needs rather than what they queued for.

How many players use each queue

In its Director's Take on future formats, Blizzard published the share of daily players in each mode as of 28 June 2026. A player is counted in every mode they play in a session, so the figures overlap and don't add up to 100%:

Two readings follow. Role Queue is the main ranked game, with more than four times the ranked players of Open Queue. And six-a-side play is growing: Director Aaron Keller wrote that "5v5 has maintained its majority and 6v6 continues to see an increase in popularity."

Ranks, placements, resets and groups

Both queues use the same ladder, from Bronze to Champion with Emerald in between, and the same rules for moving through it (see Overwatch ranks explained). The differences are in how many ranks you hold:

• Placements: ten matches for each Role Queue role you play, and ten for Open Queue.
• Resets: the queues reset together. On 10 February 2026 "All ranks in Role Queue and Open Queue in Competitive Play" went back to Unranked. See rank resets and placements.
• Groups: the same narrow and wide limits apply in both. Since October 2024, Open Queue matches players in wide groups, narrow groups and solo players "in the same matchmaking pool", and Blizzard said then that it would remove the Wide modifier and its notification from Open Queue in a future update. The limits are in our group rules guide.

Leaderboards and the Top 500

The Top 500 Challenger leaderboard has nine boards per platform and region: Tank, Damage, Support and Combined for the core game and for Stadium, plus Open Queue. Challenger Score from Role Queue counts for your role's board and for Combined; score earned in Open Queue goes to its own board only. In 2026 the Open Queue board asks for 2,000 Challenger Score, the same as Combined, while each role board asks for 1,500. Since 6 October 2026 the boards are sorted by Rank by default; the score only decides who qualifies. Details: Top 500 Challenger guide.

Flex Queue and Dynamic Queue: tests, not a new format

In summer 2026 Blizzard tested two 6v6 formats that sit between the two queues:

• Flex Queue (16–19 July): a 1-3-2 team with at least one Tank, three "Flex Damage" players and two Supports, where only one Damage player at a time could switch to a tank.
• Dynamic Queue (30 July to 2 August): matchmaking that aims for two of each role but switches to the Flex format when the tank queue is the bottleneck.

Blizzard was careful about what they mean: running them "doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to be changing the main format of the game", and results could instead feed tweaks to existing modes or new Arcade modes. As of 2 November 2026, ranked play is still Role Queue 5v5 and Open Queue 6v6.

Which queue should you climb in?

1. You main one role:

   Climb that role in Role Queue, the queue with by far the most ranked players (about 37% of daily players, against 8% in Ranked Open Queue).

2. You play two or three roles well:

   Each Role Queue role is a separate climb with its own placements. Place your strongest first, then add the others one at a time.

3. You flex every match:

   Open Queue rewards it. Expect a smaller ranked pool and team compositions you won't see in Role Queue.

4. You're chasing the Top 500:

   Role boards need 1,500 Challenger Score and Open Queue 2,000, and score only comes from wins at Master 5 and above.

Help with the queue you choose

Our rank boosts, placements and net wins are set per queue: you pick Tank, Damage, Support or Open Queue, the booster plays only that queue, and your other ranks don't move. Platinum 5 to Emerald 5 in one queue is $31.05 today, and ten placement games for a new role $24.30, from the same engine as checkout. Overwatch orders aren't open yet: get the launch alert on the Overwatch page.

Know the rules first: Blizzard's End User License Agreement forbids account boosting for payment, and an account can be actioned for it. Read the Risk Disclosure and is Overwatch boosting safe? before you order.

• Climb one queue: Rank Boost, Tank, Damage, Support or Open Queue.
• Place a new role: Placement Matches, one to ten games.
• Wins in one queue: Ranked Net Wins; losses don't count toward the total.

Related guides: Overwatch ranks explained · every hero by role · sub-roles and perks · narrow and wide groups