One of the first things you must do before you get to play OW2 is add your phone number to your Battle.net account. There’s no way to override this and start playing the game without giving Blizzard a phone number. While this can be strange to do at first, there are some solid reasons why this has to be done. Here’s why Overwatch 2 needs a phone number to play.
Why is OW 2 Asking for My Phone Number?
This two-step verification is SMS Protect, which is a way for Blizzard to monitor cheaters and prevent users from using multiple accounts with the same phone number. Another security reason is that if there’s a suspicious login or hacking attempt for your account, you can be notified of it via a phone notification. You will be required to approve (or disprove) a login attempt.
Since the game has moved to a free-to-play model, this is the step Blizzard has taken to ensure that toxic players and cheaters don’t continue playing the game and ruin it for others. Adding your phone number gives you more accountability for your actions. Then, Overwatch 2 will be able to detect your gameplay behavior and if it turns out to be strange, they can associate it with your phone number. On a positive note, it will also help protect your account if it’s about to be hacked.
In case the game identifies a player as a disruptive one, they will get banned. If they want to use another phone number to access the game, they have to choose one which has texts enabled. There are some limitations for it as well, so it won’t be very easy to immediately jump onto a secondary account.
Eligibility & Limitations
Here’s a snippet of the article posted by Blizzard:
Battle.net Phone Notifications are designed for text-enabled mobile phones:
- Messaging apps like iMessage (iOS) or WhatsApp (iOS, Android) are not supported.
- Mobile phones with prepaid plans may not work with the phone notification service.
- Phone notifications cannot be used with Voice over IP (VoIP), and VoIP numbers that are transferred to a local provider are not eligible for the service.
Players won’t be able to have multiple accounts attached to one phone number, so this may make the potential cheaters think twice before cheating. If your account is about to be hacked, the SMS notifications will add a layer of security by asking for your approval for password resets.
So, that’s why OW 2 needs a phone number to play the game. While you are here, don’t forget to check out how to get OW2 Coins in the game for free.