While Overwatch 2 is performing relatively well on consoles, the PC version hosted on Battle Net is causing frustration for a subset of players worldwide. The issues mainly revolve around the game crashing, freezing on the loading screen, or causing network-related timeouts.
This is a widespread problem affecting multiple players across different regions. Fortunately, several workarounds are available to alleviate these issues temporarily until developers provide a permanent fix. These temporary fixes include various troubleshooting methods to help smooth out gameplay and resolve the persistent crashing problems experienced by PC players.
There are a few solutions to this problem which include:
- Avoid Overclocking.
- Lower Graphics Settings.
- Switch Game Region.
- Evaluate Server Status.
- Switch to High-Performance Mode.
Avoid Overclocking Your Graphics Card
More often than not, overclocking your CPU or Graphics Card can yield better performances for your games, but there are certain times when the games might not function. Moreover, it will degrade the health and life of your components, too, so, for Overwatch 2, we would advise you to turn off most of your overclocking peripherals.
Most of the time, gamers will download third-party software to tune their Graphics Cards, but you can also apply to overclock through the main control panel of the GPU itself. As you can see from the image above, it is preferred that you keep all of the options set to the bare minimum when you play the game.
Lower The Graphical Settings Of Overwatch 2
Optimizing Overwatch 2 on PC is crucial for better performance. Toning down settings like Shadows, Lighting, and resolution noticeably boosts framerate. Adjusting image sharpening might yield slight frame increases but can impact texture quality at a distance. Key settings to adjust include Shadows, Lighting, and resolution for improved gameplay. The graphical options that I suggest adjusting are the following:
- Image Sharpening: 0.50
- Log Fog Detail: Low
- Dynamic Reflections: Low
- Shadow Detail: Low
- Effects Detail: Low
- Lighting Quality: Medium
- Antialias Quality: Off
- Refraction Quality: Low
- Ambient Occlusion: Medium
The rest of the settings I haven’t listed shouldn’t impact your performance too much, but if you have a graphics card with a low amount of VRAM in it, I suggest reducing them as well. Furthermore, if you are looking to squeeze every bit of framerate and run the game without any sort of crashes or errors, then you can also lock the in-game resolution to 100%, which will help reduce more of the load on the game.
Switch The Region Of The Game
Many players shared that they resolved Overwatch 2 Crashing by tweaking the regional settings within the Battle.net launcher. They discussed how altering regional servers might address gameplay problems related to latency and ping, common issues affecting match experiences.
These users recommended trying different server regions, particularly if the default server, like ‘Americas,’ didn’t provide optimal performance, indicating that a simple switch could potentially improve the gaming experience.
From the game’s main screen in your library, just click on the small Globe icon next to the game version option, which lets you switch between the regions for the game. You can select between the Americas, Europe, or Asia, so we recommend trying all three out and seeing which one makes the game run more stable on your end.
The changes are automatically applied once you select the region, so you won’t have to restart the Battlenet app; just relaunch the game and verify if this helps you overcome the issues of Overwatch 2.
Evaluate The Overwatch 2 Server Status
The backend servers in multiplayer games are the backbone of their proper functioning, and any sort of malfunction in them can cause severe issues for tons of players. Games like Apex Legends and Overwatch 2 operate on thousands of servers through which different regions of players are connected. Any sort of interference can be consequential to their playability, so they can also often cause crashes in the game.
Our servers are ramping up FAST for the launch of #Overwatch2!
That said- we are aware of some issues as even more players join in on the fun!
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) October 4, 2022
If you are not aware yet, the developers of Overwatch 2 at Blizzard are constantly working to ensure all of the systematic functions of the game are running smoothly for their player base. But that does not seem to be the case as the servers are flooding in with millions of players worldwide. We at eXputer had to wait for over an hour until we got past the never-ending queue of players just to enter the game.
Swap To High-Performance Mode
According to some users, there have been reports that switching between the power plans offered within your Windows 10 settings can provide some assurance against Overwatch 2 Crashing. What it does is that it increases your total power consumption or battery if you are on a laptop, but in return, the Windows OS will run applications and games such as Overwatch 2 with more resources.
So in case the game is crashing randomly or posing errors, it’d be wise to switch to the High-performance power plan, which can be done in the following steps:
- You can easily open up the Power Plan settings option on your desktop by searching for it in the Windows search bar as shown in the image below.
Choose a Power Plan (Image by eXputer) - Once you reach the next menu, there will be a variety of different power options for you to choose from.
High Performance (Image by eXputer) - Look for a drop-down menu in Additional Plans for High-Performance setting.
- Ensure it’s selected, then reboot your PC to apply changes.
Launch Overwatch 2 and check if it helped you fix its annoying issues.
Final Words on Overwatch 2 Crashing Problem
Overwatch 2 Crashing on Battle.net is causing widespread frustration. This issue affects players globally, prompting temporary solutions like avoiding GPU overclocking, updating drivers, and adjusting graphics settings.
While these remedies offer some relief, the crashes persist, frustrating players worldwide. Discussions on forums (Blizzard, Microsoft, Reddit, and Nvidia) reflect users’ ongoing struggles with these problems. Despite acknowledgments from Blizzard and ongoing investigations into the issues, no precise fix timeline has been provided.
Is #Overwatch2 crashing when trying to play matches? Never fear! We have steps to help clear this up! https://t.co/nfdtukNGXd
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) April 25, 2023
Twitter conversations emphasize the urgent need for resolution, and these problems seem widespread rather than limited to specific regions or platforms. Although potentially linked to recent patches, Blizzard hasn’t officially confirmed this correlation.
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