Like many of the original Overwatch‘s maps, Junkertown made a return in Overwatch 2. Long before Junker Queen was announced as a playable hero, Junkertown introduced her as a character and gave her a voice. The map itself is part of the Escort category, requiring players to accompany a payload all the way from a shanty village outside the town itself to its inner sanctum: the Scrapyard, an arena for ruthless fighters.
While Junkertown was previously available in Overwatch 2 starting on the day the latter launched, it was recently pulled from the live game by developer Blizzard Entertainment. A similar fate befell Bastion and Torbjörn, both of whom were removed temporarily from parts of the game on Oct. 10. Why was Junkertown removed, and when is it coming back?
Here’s everything you need to know about Junkertown’s absence.
Junkertown removal details
Junkertown’s removal was first announced by a tweet from the Blizzard customer support account. During the evening of Oct. 19, the developer revealed that the map “needs a little extra attention” and was being removed temporarily from the live game. The tweet also shared that it should be back, alongside Bastion and Torbjörn, during the following week.
The tweet linked to a forum post by Blizzard community manager AndyB, who revealed even more information about the change. According to its post, Junkertown was removed because of a bug that was causing “graphic performance issues.” They went on to say that the team intends to fix the bug and return the map to the game in a patch on Oct. 25, the start date of Halloween Terror, Overwatch 2‘s first seasonal event.
Thankfully, Junkertown fans won’t have to wait long for its return. Assuming the development team is able to fix the bugs affecting Junkertown, Bastion, and Torbjörn, all three should be available sometime on Oct. 25 alongside the new event and any balance changes the team may release.
