Overwatch Season 5: Dates & What Actually Resets

Season 5 (A Grim Doctrine) went live on 6 October 2026. It added the Support hero Doctrine, moved Sombra from Damage to Support, reworked Roadhog and added the Escort map Watchpoint: Grímsvötn. Blizzard has not announced an end date. What it has dated: the mid-season events (from 3 November) run until 7 December 2026, the Competitive and Quick Play Drives run 3–7 December, and Blizzard has confirmed that a Season 6 follows. So Season 5 runs at least until 7 December; any exact end date you see elsewhere is somebody's estimate. We update this page as soon as Blizzard publishes one.

Here's the part competitors' "season reset" pages quietly skip: a new season does not reset your rank. When Season 6 arrives, your rank carries over: no placements and nothing to re-earn, unless Blizzard announces a reset for it. The last rank reset was on 10 February 2026, when every Role Queue and Open Queue rank went back to Unranked and every player played 10 placement matches per role. Blizzard said then that it resets ranks every three seasons, but no reset has been announced since.

Season 5's competitive change sits at the very top: since 6 October 2026 the Top 500 Challenger leaderboards are sorted by rank instead of Challenger Score, end-of-season titles follow rank, and the Heat Bonus was removed. Every other rank carried over untouched.

Season 4 changed one thing that deserves to be stated precisely. On 11 August 2026 Blizzard added a new rank, Emerald, between Platinum and Diamond, with a one-time Rank Redistribution: it moved mainly Platinum and Diamond players into Emerald and made the highest Champion divisions more exclusive. That was a redistribution around a new tier, not a reset: nobody went back to Unranked and nobody replayed placements.

Two more facts: there is no rank decay (Blizzard removed it in 2023), so you cannot lose your rank by not playing; and your rank moves after every match, so the old "update every 5 wins" advice still found on the web is out of date.

The season boundary will not touch your rank, so there is no reset to beat before it. A rank you climb now stays until Blizzard announces the next reset, and Blizzard usually announces a reset in the patch notes of the season before. That makes the middle of a season a good time to push, whether on your own or with a rank boost. If you play for Competitive Points, the Competitive and Quick Play Drives run from 3 to 7 December 2026.

At the Season 6 boundary expect new content and balance changes, and your competitive rank stays where you left it unless Blizzard announces a reset for Season 6. Blizzard has also said that a new Season 1 starts in 2027; whether ranks reset with it has not been announced. Meanwhile, check where your current rank places you on the ladder, read the full Overwatch rank guide for how per-match progress works, or open the rank boost page to see a real price and time estimate for the divisions you still want.

2026 is the Reign of Talon year, with seasons numbered again from 1. Season 1 (Conquest) started on 10 February 2026 with the last rank reset (everyone to Unranked, 10 placements per role). Season 2 (Summit) started on 14 April 2026, Season 3 (Into the Tiger's Den) ran 16 June – 11 August 2026, Season 4 (Heroes of Busan) ran 11 August – 6 October 2026 and added Emerald, and Season 5 (A Grim Doctrine) has been live since 6 October 2026. Season boundaries since February changed content, not ranks; Season 4's Emerald redistribution is the one structural change on record. We log each season's dates here as they close.