Overwatch 2 ban wave wipes out thousands of cheaters

We’ve had Overwatch 2 in our lives for almost a month now, and what a month it’s been. Following the game’s release, mech-wielding tank hero D.Va had a resurgence of popularity…on Pornhub, because of course she did. Before the game even came out, a number of fans took to social media to share that the new character redesigns had got them feeling some kind of way, so this is entirely unsurprising.

For fans actually playing the game rather than engaging with, uh, related content, role queues have been a total nightmare due to the lack of players willing to choose support. Going tank or DPS is just too enticing, it seems - at least you’ll actually get a match quickly if you’re willing to pick up the healing gauntlet.

Check out the trailer for Overwatch 2 right here.

Now, as reported by Dexerto, yesterday, thousands of players got hit with bans in an attempt to remove cheaters and hackers from the game. The total number was confirmed on the Korean Overwatch forums - a whopping 3,486 have been struck due to them using unauthorised programs in the game.

The ban wave was bound to come eventually - as Dexerto writes, a number of gameplay clips have been going on viral on Twitter lately which showcased some rather unusual Play of the Game highlights. The one below, for example, sees a very talented Soldier 76 player mow down the enemy team with ease. Another is even more obvious - as an Ashe player’s camera rapidly flicks between their opponents as they get back-to-back headshots, wiping out everyone in their path.

Clearly, Blizzard paid attention to these clips, too. Hopefully, cheaters will be a bit less of an issue in the game going forward, but otherwise, players are able to report others they see using aimbots and hacks.