Ah sniping, The most romanticised form of gunplay in many videogames. I can certainly understand the allure, sitting back, stalking your prey, deciding who to take out in a single, well-placed, shot. Good snipers are respected and feared, picking of priority targets, and making the enemy team fear poking their heads out for even a second. However, that version of the sniper is rarely a reality, especially in Overwatch.

Overwatch teams are very small compared to most other FPS games. Battlefield has up to 64 players, Team Fortress 2 is balanced around 24, and Call of Duty games generally have 16. A full game of Overwatch only has 12 players, so, every pick is very important, and each player matters a lot. The sniper's role, in Overwatch is to provide information on the enemy team's positions using abilities, and, to apply pressure and eliminate important members from the enemy team (usually the support classes) with well placed shots. However, this role is very, very, map dependant and more frequently than not, the Sniper is a player who would be better off playing another offense or defence class simply because they would do more damage and deter the enemy team by being a non-sniping class, or, enabling the other players to live longer by playing a support class. Furthermore, the wall-hack abilities of these classes are nice, but, they accomplish little more than a team who effectively talks to each other.

However, despite this, there is a lot of Hanzo being played, and nearly no Widowmaker.

This most likely down to map design. Very few maps allow for these long sight lines, which, puts Hanzo at an advantage because his bow is much more effective at medium range combat than Widomaker's rifle. Furthermore, both snipers are often forced to engage on the enemy's terms, being forced to fight at close or even medium range, due to the number of routes to nearly every sniper spot. Additionally, Blizzard nerfed Widowmaker's aim-down-sights time, and, increased the cooldown on her movement ability, making it very difficult for her to actually get into position, and even more difficult to escape from pressure. Hanzo fairs better, since the hitbox for his bow is very, very, forgiving. Additionally, Hanzo's fire-rate far outclasses that of Widow's with less zoom so it is easier to hit a closer target, and, Hanzo's wall-climb has no cooldown at all, making his primary advanced movement option far superior to Widow's. Finally, Hanzo received a buff in the last patch, increasing his movement speed while aiming, which, keeps him mobile even when lining up a shot, unlike Widowmaker once more.

As it stands, Sniper is a questionable role to fill in the first place, and, Hanzo is nearly always the better pick due to his fire-rate, movement options, and more forgiving hit-detection. I'd like to see the choice between snipers to be much more nuanced decision. The buffs to Widow in the PTR look promising, but personally, I believe that a cooldown reduction on Widow's movement ability is needed as well.