Why Does My Overwatch 2 Keep Crashing

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.

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.

GPUOverclocking
Overclocking in Nvidia

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.

Update Your GPU Drivers

Nvidia GPU drivers
How to Update GPU drivers on Nvidia (Image by eXputer)

Graphics Card drivers, crucial for optimal PC performance, serve as the foundation for seamless gaming experiences, preventing disruptions like crashes. Leading GPU manufacturers like AMD and Nvidia regularly release updated drivers, accessible through their respective dedicated download sites.

Nvidia users can utilize Geforce Experience for convenient scanning and downloading of driver updates. Meanwhile, AMD users can access drivers via the AMD Drivers Support site or directly through the Radeon Control panel, simplifying the process of scanning and downloading preferred updates.

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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:

Overwatch 2 settings
Overwatch 2 Graphical settings (Image by eXputer)
  • 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.

Scan And Repair The Files On Battlenet

Battlenet scan and repair
Begin scan and repair (Image by eXputer)

If the previous workarounds didn’t work, then it’d be wise to verify the files of the game using the Battlenet platform. Many launchers like Steam and GOG offer the feasibility of scanning game directories for corrupted or missing files, which may be the main reason most of the time behind major game errors and issues.

Switch The Region Of The Game

Many players shared that they resolved game issues 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.

OW2 change region
Overwatch 2 changing region (Image by eXputer)

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.

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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 and millions of players around the world. 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.

Disable Background Applications And Overlays

The task manager
The Task Manager (Image by eXputer)

While it may come off as a surprise, there are occasions where the background applications and software running on your desktop can be the cause of glitches and bugs in video games. It has proven to be a valid concern for Overwatch 2 as well because, as we know previously, the game has launched in an unstable state, so there are bound to be issues, such as the optimization factoring in applications running in the background on your PC.

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 the crashes and errors of the game. 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.

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. Once you reach the next menu, there will be a variety of different power options for you to choose from.
  3. At first glance, there will only be the option to choose between either a power saver or balanced mode.
  4. But if you look closely, you should be able to spot a drop-down option in the additional plans, which will allow you to select the High-Performance setting for your Windows.
  5. Make sure it is selected and just to be safe, you can also reboot your PC to apply the changes made here.
  6. Launch Overwatch 2 and check if it helped you fix the annoying issues present in it.

Run The Game Under Administrator Settings

One of the few workarounds that most PC gamers should know about, if you don’t already, is that you run applications under administrator privileges which will grant them access to use your resources and data without any restrictions from the operating system. It is quite a helpful process that can also help run video games more smoothly and stable, and it is pretty self-explanatory to enable under most software or applications:

My Thoughts

Overwatch 2’s PC version on Battle.net is causing widespread frustration due to crashing, freezing, and network timeouts. These issues affect 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 and Twitter reflect users’ ongoing struggles with these problems. Despite acknowledgments from Blizzard and ongoing investigations into the issues, no precise fix timeline has been provided.

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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