Overwatch 2 players getting “unfair” bans because game won’t load into matches
Overwatch 2 players are getting “unfair” bans because the game refuses to load them into matches, leaving them with leaver penalties which cannot be overturned.
Overwatch 2is not a perfect game. Upon its release, it was hit with insanely long queues to load into the game, and throughout its early launch matches were being hit with random disconnects.
But now, almost half a year into Overwatch 2’s life, all these bugs have been mostly solved. However, players are still reporting bugs with loading into games, which are leaving them with leaver penalties that result in bans and a loss in MMR.
Dubbed the “applying update” bug by some players, it leaves them stuck in a loading screen which says “applying update” as they attempt to load into a match. Eventually, they would fail to load into the match, which the games registers as dodging, giving them penalties.
Overwatch 2 players banned due to updating bug glitch
The earliest report of the bug we could find was aReddit poston the Overwatch forum from July 22, 2025. Although it did not get much traction, several others in the comments confirmed it happened to them as well.
And the bug has been posted intermittently around Blizzard and Reddit forums since, however it has not been fixed as of yet. There aretutorials on how to fix it, but it is now players are reporting the problem en masse.
In a Blizzard forum post, a player posted about it in the bug reports section. “Twice in two days, my game has gotten hung up on “Applying Update” when I attempt to play comp, resulting in a suspension and (I assume) an unfair leaver penalty” they wrote. With dozens of other players also confirming it has happened to them.
Overwatch 2 players who main these heroes are in for a shock very soon
Overwatch 2 players already know which character to target with new hero ban feature
Overwatch 2 players beg devs to copy one Marvel Rivals feature
Another player also posted about their problem on the Overwatch subreddit, claiming Blizzard will not repeal any leaver penalties from it.
It was in this post they claim the suggested fixes from Blizzard for the “applying update” bug was just a temporary fix, and they have already had it happen to them multiple times since using the fixes.
This bug has been included inmultiple bug report threads, however, there has not been any fixes to it so far.
