How Long Are Overwatch 2 Queue Times?

As expected, Overwatch 2’s release - and the franchise’s shift to a free-to-play model - has been met by thousands of players. Everyone is eager to get into the game, whether they’re returning veterans, or simply new players who want to get a taste of what everyone else has been playing for the past few years. The floodgates for Overwatch 2 opened on October 4th, and since then, players have spent more time fighting to get in rather than each other. Lengthy wait times have been reported across the board with varying results. But how long should you expect to be waiting in the queue? Let’s find out.

• Struggling to play with friends? Here's what to do if you get the "player is in a different version" error message in Overwatch 2.

How Long Are Overwatch 2 Queue Times?

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At the time of writing, players are currently seeing upwards of 20,000 players in front of them when joining the back of the queue. Of course, this huge number is an alarm for concern and enough to have you hopping on to another game, but it’s not as bad as it seems.

While the player number is high, actual wait times aren’t too bad. When Overwatch 2 launched, some players were reporting highs of up to 40 minutes, but from personal experience - and as player numbers dwindle - you’re most likely going to waiting around 10 or so minutes before being able to play the game.

Unfortunately, Blizzard has not implemented a feature that showcases an estimated time, so these timings are subject to change, but the overall process of entering Overwatch 2 seems to be getting simpler.

Is 0 Players In The Queue Message In Overwatch 2 A Glitch?

More often than not, you’ll probably see that there are 0 players in front of you in the queue, but nothing appears to be happening. We don’t have an answer as to why this is happening, but we can tell you that it will eventually allow you into the game.

We can speculate it’s probably a visual glitch and simply hasn’t populated the number of players in front of you, as we’ve waited roughly 5-10 minutes once seeing the 0 players in queue message in Overwatch 2.

As the game’s release moves out of its launch day, we’re seeing issues such as this less and less, so hopefully, queue times and error messages are a thing of the past in a few days.

• Be sure to also check out everything included in the Overwatch 2 Founder's Pack.