How to Fix Frequent Ping Spikes In Overwatch 2

There's nothing quite as frustrating as being on a 10-player kill streak but not being able to continue it because of a random ping spike occurring. It's almost as bad as the round starting and you not even being able to leave your own spawn point because of your high ping.

One thing to note is that getting an Overwatch 2 ping spike is actually more common than you might think, especially because of the insane number of players flooding in due to the free-to-play nature of the game.

Suppose you're like us and have had to endure frequent ping spikes since you started playing this game then. Fortunately, we have some fixes to your problem. After all, they worked for us, and now we're able to get those play of the games without any worries.

Switch to an ethernet cable 

When playing online games like Overwatch 2 that require a constant and stable internet connection to function properly, connecting using a router might cause high latency, resulting in frequent ping spikes.

To avoid this, consider switching to an ethernet cable instead. Connect an ethernet cable directly from your wall to your device, may it be a PC, a laptop, or a game console, and check to see if your ping spikes go away.

As for what ethernet cable to get, a good CAT 8 cable such as the Zosion Ethernet Cable should be good enough as not only does it have a good length, but it's capable of providing up to 40 Gbps, which is more than enough to erase the possibility of ping spikes in any game.

Do a speed test to check your internet connection

The reason for your ping spikes might, in fact, be your own internet connection. To check if that's the case for you, do a speed test from any website online such as Ookla, or maybe an app. If your ping in the speed test ends up being high, then contact your internet service providers.

If your internet connection is having issues, then you're very likely to experience frequent ping spikes not only when playing Overwatch 2 but also when playing any other game that requires a constant and stable internet connection.

Change your server region

Many times the reason for high ping is being connected to the wrong server. If you live in Asia and are connected to, say, the American servers, then it's a given that your ping will be higher than it should be. Additionally, attempting to connect to a full server might take longer than usual.

To change this

• Open Blizzard's battle.net desktop app
• Select the Overwatch 2 application
• Click on the globe icon next to the game version at the bottom left
• Select the server you want to connect to

Ensure the Overwatch 2 servers aren't down

As expected from a free-to-play game of such popularity, many players trying to connect to the servers at once might cause them to crash or be unstable. To ensure this isn't the case, check either their official Twitter page or sites such as downdetector to see if other players have reported a similar problem.

If the servers are having problems, chances are they'll be down for maintenance soon. In such circumstances, you'll have to wait until the servers come back up. The longest time servers have been down for this game so far has been around three hours, so that you might be waiting a while. 

If one specific server is having an issue, then it might be worth switching servers and checking if the issue gets solved. If it does, then you could play on the other server until Blizzard fixes the issue with your original server.

Close background applications that are using network

If you've followed all the aforementioned steps but are still experiencing ping spikes, the cause may be actually in your PC or laptop. To make sure there aren't any background applications or programs using the network, first open task manager by either pressing ctrl+shift+esc or by right clicking the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and selecting task manager.

In the list of processes, click the "Network" heading to sort the list of running processes by network usage. Here, you'll see which applications are using your network along with how much bandwidth they're using. If you don't see the headings and currently running applications, then you'll have to first click on 'more details'.

This technically isn't a list of every running program that's using the network, as the task manager shows the network usage of applications barely using any network as zero, which is a rounded figure. Therefore, even if those applications keep running, it's highly unlikely they will be consuming enough network data to affect your Overwatch 2 game.

Additionally, it might be worth setting the priority level of Overwatch 2 on high. To do this, ensure Overwatch 2 is running, and then click on the 'details' heading in the same task manager. Here, you'll see a list of every currently running application.

Look for the game you want to change the priority level of, which is Overwatch 2 in this case, and right-click on it. Hover over the 'set priority' option, and six more options will pop up, those being 

• Realtime 
• High 
• Above normal 
• Normal 
• Below normal 
• Low

Set the priority as either above normal or high, and you should see a massive improvement not only in your Overwatch 2 ping spike problem but also in your general performance when playing the game.