Several Blizzard games suffered outages last night due to a distributed denial of service orDDoS attack. As reported byDot Esports, players attempting to log in to Battle.net and playOverwatch, Hearthstone,andWorld of Warcraftwere unable to find matches or connect with their friends. The attack was first reported around 10:15 PM EST last night as increased latency and connection issues inOverwatch,where some frustrated players were getting disconnected from competitive matches and suffering leaver penalties. Blizzard technical support officially declared the presence of a DDoS attack around 11 PM, and it lasted until about 3 AM this morning. It’s not yet clear who was behind the attack.
AfterOverwatchplayers continued to disconnect from ranked matches, frustrated users poured into Blizzard’s forums to complain about the issues. Queue times were extended, players were randomly disconnecting from matches, and few could log into Battle.net. I experienced this firsthand, as a friend and I tried to playOverwatcharound 11 PM and were unable to see anyone on our Battle.net friends list or even get into a match.
AfterHearthstoneandWorld of Warcraftplayers began reporting similar issues, Blizzard put a maintenance alert statement on Battle.net that read, “We are currently experiencing a DDoS attack, which may result in high latency and disconnections for some players. We are actively working to mitigate this issue.” All Blizzard games were reportedly affected by the DDoS as well as some of their websites, including the Blizzard Gear store and support site. According to a tech support intermediary on the Blizzard forums, latency reports didn’t slow down until after 2 AM EST.
This isn’t the first time Blizzard has been the victim of a DDoS attack. A few years ago, an individual behinda DDoS ofWorld of Warcraft Classicwas arrested. As recently as November 24, Battle.net was the subject of a different DDoS that prevented players from logging in and accessing the launcher’s features.
TheOverwatchdeveloper has beenmired in scandalfor most of this year as its employees accuse high-profile executives and developers of sexual harassment and discrimination. It’s unclear whether last night’s DDoS is related.
