Blizzard says Overwatch 2 server issues caused by ‘mass DDoS attack

What you need to know

• Overwatch 2’s launch has been relatively rough, as players have experienced frequent disconnects from the game’s servers.
• Blizzard says that the servers have been hit by a “mass DDoS attack,” resulting in the issues many players are having.
• Blizzard is working to mitigate the effects of the attack so that players can play the game without losing connection to its servers. However, this will likely take some time.

After years of baking in the development oven, Overwatch 2 — a massive, foundation-altering update to the original experience that developer Blizzard is positioning as a sequel — has finally arrived on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Switch. However, as players began loading into matches and trying out Overwatch 2’s new 5v5 format, many of them were immediately disconnected from the game’s servers. And while players have been able to reconnect and continue searching for games, these abrupt disconnects have continued to occur. 

Many initially assumed that the disconnects were due to typical launch day issues, but Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Ybarra has stated otherwise. “Unfortunately we are experiencing a mass DDoS attack on our servers,” said Ybarra in a Tweet. “Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage. This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues.”

According to the developer, the Overwatch 2 launch woes are due to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, which is a type of cybercrime in which the party responsible overwhelms a server with an immense amount of internet traffic. These kinds of attacks can cause multiplayer games to become incredibly unstable, often resulting in extreme lag or server shutdowns. In Overwatch 2’s case, the assaults are causing Overwatch accounts to lose their connection with the game’s servers, resulting in the issue that’s affecting most players right now.