Overwatch 2 having rough launch, Blizzard blames ‘mass DDoS attack’ on servers

Overwatch 2 is here, sort of. Blizzard’s first-person shooter sequel launched on Tuesday, but was hit with some immediate, if particularly unsurprising, server trouble that has left it unplayable for many users. Blizzard Support says that it’s well aware of the issues and working to solve them now, but doesn’t have a timetable for when the game will be fully functional again.

Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment, said Tuesday afternoon that “Teams are working hard on server issues with Overwatch 2. We are humbled by the excitement of players and will continue to focus on issues and get players into the fun! Thanks for your patience.”

Ybarra later tweeted that Blizzard is also dealing with “a mass DDoS attack on our servers.”

“Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage,” Ybarra said. “This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues.”

The issues seem to be related to Overwatch 2’s login servers. The game already features massive login queues with so many players attempting to jump in at once. While some players are getting through the queues (which number well into the thousands), others are getting stuck at 0 then receiving a message about a login error and told to try again later. Meanwhile, other players are getting a message about an “Unexpected Server Error” or getting disconnected when they attempt to load the game.

Here are the current “known launch issues” for Overwatch 2 that Blizzard is attempting to address:

• Some players who merged their PC and console accounts are seeing an “Unexpected Server Error”
• Some cosmetics, items, and currency that players own are not showing up in their collections
• Some players are experiencing server disconnects

Server issues at the launch of a new game are always somewhat expected, so they’re no real surprise here either. With Blizzard keeping a very close eye on the process, the developer’s support accounts on Twitter are likely to be the best place to check for its ongoing status.

Unlike its predecessor, Overwatch 2 is free-to-play, which makes its downtime disappointing, but not surprising. The original Overwatch shut down on Monday, which means that there’s no other version of the game for players to jump to while they wait out Blizzard’s server maintenance.