Overwatch 2 queues are still a problem 24 hours later

Update 2: Blizzard will be taking the Overwatch 2 servers down at 3 pm PDT for one hour "to address some bugs related to account merge, login, and the First Time User Experience." And it will take them down again at 6 pm PDT for three hours to update its servers to reduce queue times.

Update: Blizzard released a detailed post about how its tackling the server queue times and working to restore players' missing cosmetic items. 

Original story: A full 24 hours after Overwatch 2's launch and it's still suffering from login queues, errors, disconnects, and account issues.

If you try to log into Overwatch 2 right now, as of Wednesday afternoon, you'll probably face a login queue in the thousands. Or you might get kicked out of line entirely with an error. And when you get in, you could be missing cosmetic items, currency, and heroes.

Blizzard hasn't provided an update since late last night when game director Aaron Keller tweeted that it's "steadily making progress on server issues and stability" after the rocky launch and two DDoS attacks. The developer said it would update the 'Known Issues' page as problems get resolved. The list currently includes the "unexpected server error" from merged PC and console accounts, missing cosmetics and currency, and server disconnects.

Some players report that swapping to the Asia region (via the globe icon on the Battle.net launcher) can get you in faster than queuing on the North American servers, but others have said it didn't change much for them. I successfully got in this way yesterday and was able to reconnect after a few mid-match disconnects too.

I didn't have anything catastrophic happen once I was in the game and playing matches, but apparently I'm lucky. Players are reporting a ton of issues with different features in Overwatch 2, which all could be rooted in the server trouble. Heroes are going bald because their hair isn't loading in, emotes cause t-poses, free cosmetic items cost currency for some reason, and accounts are being reverted into new ones without any heroes unlocked.

I've contacted Blizzard for an update on when it expects any of these problems to be fixed and will update this post when it responds. You can keep an eye on both the Overwatch Twitter account and the Blizzard customer support one for further updates.

Everyone hoping to play Overwatch 2 will have to keep rolling the dice on the login screen and pray that they get in and stay in. And since the sequel replaced the original game when it launched, you can't even go back and play it while you wait for everything to settle.