Multiple Blizzard titles were impacted by a DDoS attack earlier this month, leaving gamers wondering more about what a DDoS attack is and why it happens.
Earlier in April, several Blizzard titles were plagued with errors after Battle.net was targeted by a DDoS attack. The games impacted by the attack included World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2. Players started reporting a bunch of problems in the late evening of April 7, leading to Blizzard to tweet about the incident on Twitter. In response to the tweet, some gamers noted that they’ve been having issues for 14 hours or more.
[#Bnet] The DDOS attacks that we were monitoring have ended. If you are still unable to log in try https://t.co/XSV7UVmub2
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) April 8, 2023
What is a DDoS attack?
DDoS stands for distributed denial-of-service, which is an attempt to disrupt the targeted server by overwhelming it with what acts like an incoming flood of traffic. Basically, a DDoS causes a “traffic jam,” preventing the usual traffic from getting to its destination. This means that many gamers are impacted and unable to properly play their online game of choice.
Battle.net is a PC client that serves as a game launcher, storefront, and social platform for Blizzard gamers. A lot of games require gamers to be logged into Battle.net to be able to access the game’s online services. So when Battle.net was attacked, games like Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft were negatively impacted.
Many gamers became frustrated with how Blizzard had all games running through the one platform. Having every game impacted by the attack pointed out a pretty big flaw with this system. A single attack disrupting so many games had the gaming community alarmed.
Overwatch 2 DDoS attack
This isn’t the first time that Overwatch 2 has been the target of a DDoS attack. When the game first launched, a mass DDoS attack to the servers prevented many players from playing the game as intended. A lot of players were dropped from matches and some couldn’t connect to begin with.
Unfortunately we are experiencing a mass DDoS attack on our servers. Teams are working hard to mitigate/manage. This is causing a lot of drop/connection issues. https://t.co/4GwrfHEiBE
— Mike Ybarra 🎄 (@Qwik) October 4, 2022
DDoS attacks continue to be a problem in the gaming world but developers are always looking for ways to get around this issue. The latest Battle.net attack has hopefully opened up Blizzard’s eyes to the impact DDoS attacks have on the gaming community.
If you’re ever experiencing any issues with Overwatch 2, check the Blizzard customer service Twitter to see updates.
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