Overwatch 2 Is Now Suspending Players Who Leave Quick Play Matches

Overwatch 2 players who find it difficult to finish a match of Quick Play due to others leaving will likely have a better experience from now on. That’s at least the hope of Blizzard, who implemented a new rule to ensure players stick around until the end. Today, thanks to a report from The Gamer, we’re finding out that Blizzard has begun implementing suspensions for players who are found leaving Quick Play matches before they finish. If you’re finding yourself to be a player that doesn’t stick around very long into a losing game, you’ll want to check out how long these suspensions will last once triggered.

If you don’t recall, the previous strikes against players that left Quick Play matches too soon were a hit against the XP earned per round. That was simply not cutting it, as Blizzard found that they needed to take further action to curb the amount of players leaving a match. We get it; Quick Play matches are not competitive. It’s a more relaxed match, so you might not give the gameplay session your all. This might also persuade you to drop out of a game after realizing your team will not make a comeback. However, leaving these matches hurts the players that you leave behind as they quickly become at an even more significant disadvantage. 

So now, these new suspensions will start popping up on accounts that are leaving matches. According to the patch notes for Overwatch 2, it looks like the first penalty will result in a ten-minute suspension for your account on most game modes. The second penalty will result in thirty minutes of your account being suspended. It’s also stated that the queue suspension will reapply each time a player leaves a game when they are above the first penalty threshold but not when they complete their games. 

Again, this is a new implementation for Overwatch 2. So, that means we’ll have to watch and see if this change does anything to persuade players to stick around or if it will continue to see players just dropping out of the game. If players want to play another game right after, they’ll likely stick around and finish the match. 

Currently, Overwatch 2 is now available to enjoy. This first-person hero shooter launched as a free-to-play experience where players can enjoy the title on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and the PC platforms. We also have a Before You Buy coverage of the game when it was first made available. You can watch our coverage of the game in the video we have embedded below.