The hit sequel to the critically acclaimed competitive Hero shooter is finally here. Overwatch 2 is off to a solid yet bumpy start as millions of players are pouring in to try it from around the world. The game has made the decision to go completely free-to-play, which might be questionable, but what’s more bothersome is the fact that Overwatch 2 is suffering from quite a few errors that need to be fixed as well as the game itself crashing due to random reasons for numerous users.
In case you are a new player entering the fray for the first time, we strongly encourage you to check out our detailed Tips and Tricks to get a headstart on learning the ins and outs of the game. But if by chance you are a hardcore player returning to the game like me, then it’d be wise to read our descriptive Overwatch 2 Characters Tier List to see all the new changes about each hero from their original game variant.
Ideally, we have also covered an in-depth Review of the game to see if it is worth your time and investment. Before we discuss the crashes in Overwatch 2, why not check out some of our other related crashing guides to get a basic gist of the solutions we have prepared for you. Now if your Overwatch 2 keeps crashing, relax, because we are about to fix it.
What Are The Crashes And Errors In Overwatch 2
Multi-player games are often considered the gold standard by developers in regard to maintaining a solid foundation for a fun and hobby-centered game. You will find that famous franchises such as Call Of Duty and even games such as Fortnite all strive to have the most dedicated and loyal player base. These titles may occasionally suffer from issues that can impact their fun factor, but they tend to be heard from developers.
However, the case is the opposite here for Overwatch 2, as Blizzard has undoubtedly faced a number of backlashes and heat during the development of the game. It was first revealed back in 2019, and after numerous controversies about the company halting the development, the game was released to the public, but at what cost? Since half of the general feedback is plagued with complaints about errors and crashes for users.
These problems mostly consist of the game booting the player out of the application amidst matches as well as the game getting frozen at loading screens. Moreover, there are even more problematic issues where the application will come to a halt at a black screen when loading into a match. These are most of the complaints issued by the community, and it seems like the developers are trying their best to fix it as soon as possible.
But there is no need to worry as we have gone ahead and scoured the different forums and social groups of the game, where we have discovered a few workarounds to alleviate this tenacious roadblock. The game is mostly running stable for Console users, aside from some performance issues which can only be fixed by Blizzard. Aside from that, let’s briefly discuss how you can get to fixing these crashes and errors in Overwatch 2 for the PC.
How To Fix Overwatch 2 Crashing On PC
As we have stated previously, the game seems to be running without too many hitches on consoles, but the PC version on Battle Net is causing frustrations for a handful of players worldwide. There is a quite a few ways that you go about resolving these problems for the game, as most of them consist of simple workarounds that will help you run it smoothly until it gets properly fixed by the developers.
We advise you to follow each method carefully as any one of these can help you to resolve the crashing on Overwatch 2 as quickly as possible, and who knows? You might also fix some of the known errors along the way. So without further delay, let’s discuss each of these fixes we have outlined for you in full detail.
Restart The Game And The System
We are starting things off with one of the simplest fixes that all gamers always try when it comes to the most pain in the neck problems in video games nowadays. It is by simply restarting the game once or twice to see if any non-existential data in the game files might be the one causing the crash. If you are looking to restart the application quickly, you can easily do it by pressing the ALT + F4 keys together and closing the application from there.
But if that doesn’t work out, then you can move on to rebooting your entire PC to see if that works because it is arguably one of the oldest tricks in the book to kick-start any stuck application or video game. Restarting the system will help it work if the game causes some malfunction to it, and it will also boot up the game in a much more refreshed state for you.
However, if even that doesn’t help you in relieving the crashes, then the last course of action can be to power cycle the PC, which is easier said than done by all means. You can do it by completely shutting down your PC and making sure it isn’t receiving any excess electricity by removing the main power cord from the output source. Now the important part is leaving it in that condition for at least a couple of minutes.
After which, plug everything once again back into place and boot up your PC and then launch the Overwatch 2 application from the Battle Net platform and verify if it helped help you fix the error or crashes in the game. If not, then let’s move on to the rest of the fixes in the list.
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.
It has proven to be a working fix for some players in the community after they brought their GPU & CPU power to default frequencies and settings. Since Overwatch 2 is a new title, after all, there is no point in overclocking your components for it until the game runs at stable metrics across the board. Also, if you are generally new to overclocking, then we strictly advise against doing it because it can be dangerous either way for your system.
If you are using performance monitoring software such as MSI Afterburner to tune both of these main components, then we would suggest turning it off as it can potentially freeze your system, too, according to some players in the Overwatch community.
Update Your GPU Drivers
While we were on the subject of PC components, it is worth noting that the drivers are essential when it comes to the proper functioning of the Graphics Cards in your PC. These drivers act as the building blocks and set a foundation for the games to run smoothly on your system without any sort of hindrances that may disrupt the experience, such as crashes or errors.
AMD and Nvidia are the leading GPU manufacturers who will periodically release new drivers for users to download on their systems. Nvidia has a dedicated and Up-to-date Drivers Download Site, and it will let you pick the latest ones for your desired model too. Preferably, you can download Geforce Experience if you are an Nvidia user for ease of access, as you can simply scan and download these new driver updates from it.
AMD users do not have to worry too much either, as they can head to the AMD Drivers Support site, where you can download your preferred drivers for your GPU from the company. Ideally, you can just use the Radeon Control panel, which will let you scan for new updates from the main screen.
Whatever way you find it easy, once you download and install new drivers for your Graphics Card, always reboot your PC to apply the changes to your system. There are even times when these drivers will include support for the GPU to run the latest games, such as Overwatch 2, so do not miss out on updating them.
Lower The Graphical Settings Of Overwatch 2
Quite possibly, one of the significant arising problems in modern video games running on PC these days revolves around their optimization and performance. Thankfully, Overwatch 2 is feasible to download on most systems as it is one of the most popular Esports franchises alongside games such as CSGO and Valorant. Not only that, it runs great, but we would still suggest toning some graphical options down just a bit to run it even better.
We found that toning down the Shadow and Lighting settings significantly raised our framerate, while adjusting the in-game resolution can also help you out quite a bit. According to some testing, the image sharpening can also correlate to increasing some frames, but there isn’t any major difference to be found as the textures may appear slightly jagged at far distances. The graphical options that we 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 we 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, we 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.
We highly suggest trying and applying these recommended settings from our end and checking if it helps you cure some of the problems associated with Overwatch 2. If not, then continue reading, as we have a few more solutions entailed for you to fix the crashes and errors of the game.
Scan And Repair The Files On Battlenet
If the previous workarounds didn’t work, then it’d be wise to verify the files of the game using the Battlenet platform. There are many launchers like Steam and GOG that 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.
For now, let’s look at how you can scan and repair the Overwatch 2 game files for any sort of problems on it via the Battlenet launcher since it is exclusively available there only:
- First things first, you will need to open up the Battlenet launcher, which can be done by typing it in your Windows search bar, or better yet, you can have it pinned at all times under your taskbar.
- Locate the Overwatch 2 application under your library section in the launcher
- Click on the gear icon next to the Play option to open the settings menu for the game.
- Select and click on the ‘Scan and Repair’ setting here.
- It will then ask for a confirmation on which you simply need to click on the Begin Scan prompt to begin the process of scanning and repairing the files.
- Keep in mind that it can take some time to complete depending on the size of the game, from roughly 10 to 15 minutes at max.
- Once it is done, it will either update you with any missing files that need to be installed again or that everything is in check, after which launch Overwatch 2 and verify if it helped you fix the errors in it.
Switch The Region Of The Game
Believe it or not, some users on the Discord community of the game have reported fixing the issues of the game simply by switching the region from the battle net launcher. Under most circumstances, the regional servers of the game may be the downside for multiplayer video games, and they also end up causing a fuss, such as latency and ping issues in your matches that can be more or less annoying to deal with after all.
Some users on the forums of the Overwatch 2 blog posts have stated that you can try switching up the regional servers, which may resolve some of the issues that are plaguing the game at the moment. Most users living in the United States will, of course, end up playing on the ‘Americas’ server, but in the rare chance that your home advantage region doesn’t work out, you can easily swap it with ease from the launcher menu.
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 right now 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.
Be as it may, your best course of action will be to stay up-to-date on the game’s server status, as Blizzard may even perform some background maintenance on it. This is essentially a process that developers will perform on their games for a scheduled period of time to ensure it runs smoothly or to add in an emergency hotfix.
It is unclear when the servers of Overwatch 2 will get updated, but thankfully you can follow their Twitter Support account to stay up to date on the latest news and information. So be on the lookout if there are any planned server outages for the game, which may resolve some of the known issues players are facing in it.
Disable Background Applications And Overlays
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.
These background applications can end up consuming valuable resources from both your RAM and CPU, which are both just as integral to running the games as the Graphics Card. Most gamers frequently end up using applications such as Spotify, Discord, and the Xbox App, which can drain your RAM usage, which in turn, will likely cause issues in your games, such as Overwatch 2 crashing on startup or during the matches.
- You can disable or remove the background running apps via the Task Manager.
- It can be opened up by pressing together the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys.
- Alternatively, you can also open it by right-clicking on your taskbar and selecting the Task Manager from the sub-menu that pops up.
- Once here, simply right-click on the tasks or application you want to close and select the ‘End Task.’ to close them instantly.
- It will help you free up some of the memory resources, so you will want to disable anything possible such as any unnecessary web browser tabs and the applications we mentioned previously.
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.
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 above.
- Once you reach the next menu, there will be a variety of different power options for you to choose from.
- At first glance, there will only be the option to choose between either a power saver or balanced mode.
- 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.
- Make sure it is selected and just to be safe, you can also reboot your PC to apply the changes made here.
- 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 application:
- First of all, you will need to locate the executable file of Overwatch which will be labeled as the ‘Overwatch Launcher’ in its main game directory, found in whichever disk drive you have the game installed at.
- Now simply right-click on it and select the Properties option in the sub-menu.
- You will now be displayed with a few different tabs but for now, just select the Compatibility tab.
- Now, if you look at the bottom options, there should be the setting to Run This Program As An Administrator, on which you just have to check the box right next to it.
- Don’t forget to hit the apply option once you are done to save the changes.
- Launch Overwatch 2 to evaluate if any of the game-breaking issues are still persisting in it.
The Wrap-Up
The original Overwatch had an immense fan following after its release in 2016, and it only grew larger as months flew by, and soon, it would become one of the most hardcore team hero shooter experiences in the industry. Although the game suffered from several balancing changes and deeper end problems, it still offered players a fun time to have with their friends as each match, whether it was competitive or casual, felt engaging to an extent.
The game would soon introduce new modes, and several new heroes along with their backstories told through animated shorts which would also help flesh out the narrative of the game too. Overall with tons of balancing updates made throughout its lifespan, the game would grow more and more and would soon also feature competitive esports league teams competing in worldwide tournaments.
Fast-forward all the way now, the sequel was announced long ago in 2019, and the developers also promised that they would implement a dedicated PVE campaign to go along with the game. However, it was fair to assume that a huge chunk of the player base was confused about what new changes they could make to make Overwatch 2 feel like a sequel instead of the same with a different number etched on the cover.
Now that the game has launched after a long-awaited timeline since the first reveal, it has seen somewhat mixed feedback due to the numerous server and bugs present in the game. Not to mention there have been a few controversies surrounding it too. It is unclear what the future may hold, but thankfully, the developers are well aware of the problems and are working hard to iron these issues out and polish the game’s ecosystem.
For now, this concludes our detailed guide on how you can fix Overwatch 2 from crashing on your PC. If you do end up fixing it, then let us know in the comments below. As always, eXputer wishes you luck!
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