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[LordOfLore]

Saw it on Kotaku first but here's the original post.

One year ago today, Overwatch was released by Blizzard Entertainment. The game had an immediate and overwhelming impact on Tumblr, and the #overwatch tag was quickly flooded with animated shorts, comics, fan art, and, of course, toddler approval of Junkrat.

To mark this anniversary of this game-to-end-all-games, we’ve analyzed millions of posts from May 23, 2016—May 18, 2017 to precisely identify the most talked about Overwatch characters and ships. Enjoy.

Overwatch is huge

During this 358 day period, the #overwatch tag alone garnered nearly 150 million engagements. It was the second most trending tag during this time. That’s trendier than every TV show and film, and even bigger, more generic tags like #GIF (No. 5) and #art (No. 7). The next highest trending video game-related tag was #Pokémon, at No. 20.

Overwatch made its debut on the Fandometrics Video Games list on March 14th, 2016 at No. 16, more than two months before the game was even released. On May 9, 2016 Overwatch jumped a solid ten spots to No. 2. The following week, it was No. 1. It reigned supreme until July 11th, 2016, when it was kicked out by Pokémon Go. Currently Overwatch has had a 29-week streak at No. 1, beating the previous record for time at the top of the Video Games list by two months (and counting). Undertale topped off at just 21 weeks.

Top Characters

We did a full breakdown of all 24 character’s total engagements based on class. The highlights? Reaper had the most likes and reblogs, Junkrat had the most searches and Mercy had the most original posts. The details? Below:

Top Offense Heroes
Reaper | 20.07%
Tracer | 15.82%
McCree | 15.08%
Genji | 14.16%
Sombra | 12.84%
Soldier: 76 | 11.70%
Pharah | 10.33%

Top Defense Heroes
Junkrat | 32.36%
Hanzo | 24.44%
Widowmaker | 21.93%
Mei | 13.71%
Bastion | 4.53%
Torbjörn | 3.03%

Top Tank Heroes
D.Va | 39.12%
Roadhog | 21.25%
Zarya | 14.72%
Reinhardt | 13.76%
Orisa | 5.85%
Winston | 5.30%

Top Support Heroes
Mercy | 43.31%
Zenyatta | 20.83%
Lúcio | 19.22%
Symmetra | 15.92%
Ana | 0.73%

Top Non-Playable Characters
Efi Oladele | 52.71%
Athena | 18.11%
Doomfist | 11.47%
Tekhartha Mondatta | 10.01%
Katya Volskaya | 4.61%
Emily | 3.09%

Top Ships

With more than 20 characters, Overwatch fandom is rife for shipping. You can find a ship chart for just about any combination you can think of—a possible 276 unique combinations. For the sake of brevity, we highlighted just the top 10:

McHanzo, McCree x Hanzo | 35.03%
Reaper:76, Reaper x Soldier:76 | 17.03%
Pharmercy, Pharah x Mercy | 12.69%
Widowtracer, Widowmaker x Tracer | 9.08%
Roadrat, Roadhog x Junkrat | 8.82%
Genyatta, Genji x Zenyatta | 6.76%
Gency, Genji x Mercy | 5.84%
Meihem, Mei x Junkrat | 2.48%
Mercykill, Mercy x Reaper | 1.17%
Mercy76, Mercy x Soldier:76 | 1.10%

Always fun to get stats like these.

 

[super-famicom]

McHanzo, McCree x Hanzo | 35.03%
Reaper:76, Reaper x Soldier:76 | 17.03%
Pharmercy, Pharah x Mercy | 12.69%

Pharmercy got robbed

Mollipen r u ok

 

[Jaguar Victory]

The top 6 ships are homosexual. That's surprising actually.

 

[Ashodin]

The top 6 ships are homosexual. That's surprising actually.

Actually not that surprising. From what I gather, homosexual ships are fiercely fought for because they're not the norm.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

The top 6 ships are homosexual. That's surprising actually.

Overwatch is the most LGBT friendly game right now. Not that surprising.

 

[Gai Murakumo]

Never heard anybody talk about the McCree x Hanzo ship. Glad to see my boy Junkrat is the number one Defense Hero.

 

[chrominance]

Yeah, I wonder if what fuels LGBT ships is that they're rarely if ever acknowledged explicitly by canon content, and so it's solely up to fans to keep those fires burning. And obviously they burn, oh they burn.

I'll admit that I didn't know McHanzo was a thing, though.

 

[BRSxIgnition]

Yeah, I wonder if what fuels LGBT ships is that they're rarely if ever acknowledged explicitly by canon content, and so it's solely up to fans to keep those fires burning. And obviously they burn, oh they burn.

I'll admit that I didn't know McHanzo was a thing, though.

This is exactly it.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Mercy76 squeaking into that top 10 is MY highlight, don't know about y'all.

 

[veloxStrix]

All those Reaper memes.

I need Gency to never be a popular thing so that Hancy NTR doesn't rise up. Every force has an equal and opposite and all that.

 

[mollipen]

Pharmercy got robbed

Mollipen r u ok

I mean, of course they're first in my heart, but I'd only really be flipping over tables had they lost to some other Mercy or Pharah pairing... such as a few further down that don't deserve mention. I am a little surprised how big the top two are, though. Pharmercy feels pretty huge in the community, so damn at the size of something like McHanzo.

 

[Mifec]

Implying Young McCree wasn't a bi god that smashed everyone, I mean have you seen him in the Anna pic.

Fucking shippers when will they learn.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Yeah, I wonder if what fuels LGBT ships is that they're rarely if ever acknowledged explicitly by canon content, and so it's solely up to fans to keep those fires burning. And obviously they burn, oh they burn.

I'll admit that I didn't know McHanzo was a thing, though.

It's that and these characters are all different shades of attractive. There isn't one character people from the fandom wouldn't want to fuck.

 

[Data West]

The top 6 ships are homosexual. That's surprising actually.

Have you been on tumblr before?

 

[Nightbird]

It's that and these characters are all different shades of attractive. There isn't one character people from the fandom wouldn't want to fuck.

I would have said Roadhog, but I've seen the pictures...

 

[SinCityAssassin]

I mean, of course they're first in my heart, but I'd only really be flipping over tables had they lost to some other Mercy or Pharah pairing... such as a few further down that don't deserve mention.

Yeah mercykill is weird amirite high five

 

[mollipen]

Yeah mercykill is weird amirite high five

I'm not sure I've ever even seen that be a thing. I've seen more oddities like Mercy x D.Va or Mercy x Widowmaker than I've ever seen that.

 

[tbm24]

The Ana statistic is troubling.

 

[Data West]

also surprised zaryaxmei isnt on the list or anahardt i see those way more than mercy x reaper

 

[mollipen]

also surprised zaryaxmei isnt on the list or anahardt i see those way more than mercy x reaper

Oh wow, yeah. Totally spaced on that not even registering while some of those other weird combinations did.

 

[Jaguar Victory]

Have you been on tumblr before?

I get my rule 34 from Pornhub like most of the world

 

[marrec]

The fact that Mercykill even got 1.76% shows Tumblr is trash

 

[Falchion]

The D.Va love is completely warranted.