Overwatch introduces the Priority Pass to reduce queue times

One of the biggest problems Overwatch has faced over the last year is queue times. Ever since they implemented Role Queue into the game, players (mainly damage players) have had to wait in queues for long periods to find games, sometimes over ten minutes.

While Overwatch has tried to address these egregious queue times by adding Open Queue and introducing Priority Requeue, these ideas haven’t been the miracle cure. Now, they are moving in a slightly different direction to address the queues with the “Priority Pass.”

“The most important thing we’re looking out for is: at the end of the day, how can we make Overwatch more fun for our players?”

Principal game designer @GScottM dives into Overwatch's new Priority Pass feature, which is now testing on the PTR.

⚙️ : https://t.co/5IR3v1bQPu pic.twitter.com/cpM9xizm6m

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) November 19, 2020

What is the Priority Pass?

Overwatch will now reward players who queue up to play all three roles with Priority Passes. Players can then use these passes when queuing up to find a game faster. Damage players can use these passes to get into games faster as long as they are willing to flex to other roles for a bit. They can be used for other roles too, of course.

Since it may be tempting for some players to throw games on their off-roles just to get passes to play DPS, Blizzard has decided to reward more passes for winning than losing. Players will be able to hold up to 40 passes at once.

When playing Overwatch with a group of players, only damage players will need to use their Priority Passes to drop the queue time. Others playing Tanks, Supports, or queuing for flex will then all get a lower queue time as long as they do.

As of right now, the Priority Pass feature is only live on the Public Test Realm (PTR). It will likely go live on retail servers with the next patch, which should happen sometime in December.

Hopefully, we can expect to see more Overwatch players flexing over to tank and healer in the future so they can get their hands on these juicy Priority Passes.