How likely you are to get epic and legendary items from 'Overwatch' loot boxes

Thanks to new Chinese gaming regulations, Blizzard revealed just how likely you are to get different tiers of loot from Overwatch loot boxes.

According to the official Chinese Overwatch site (translated by Reddit user Bata12), every loot box has one rare or better item, one in every 5.5 loot boxes has an epic item, and one in every 13.5 loot boxes has a legendary item.

In terms of percentages: loot boxes have an 18.2% chance of dropping an epic item, and a 7.4% chance of dropping a legendary item.

For those who want to know the chance of getting multiple legendaries or epics in a loot box, you can take a look at a few different Redditors' takes on how the math works out. No matter how you slice it, though, the chances are basically slim.

These drop chances apply to the Chinese version of Overwatch and may vary for different regions (although that seems unlikely).

Blizzard was forced to release these numbers because of new regulations from the Chinese government announced back in December of last year. A NeoGAF user translated the new regulations for everyone and shared the relevant passages:

2.6 ...Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.

2.7 Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.

Basically, any video game that has some sort of loot box like Overwatch's that gives "random" items must disclose the chance of getting specific items. This affects other games too like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Blizzard is the first major company to comply.