Why does Overwatch 2 need a Post-Paid Phone number? Post-Paid Phone Numbers, Explained

It’s already proving to be a wild ride with Overwatch 2, from its expectedly overloaded queue times to the new requirement of your Blizzard.net account now needing a phone number to even enter Overwatch 2. The latter in particular seems to have not gone down all that well with a number of its player base, so here’s why it is so important and how it works.

Why does Overwatch 2 need a Post-Paid Phone number?

Linking a mobile phone number to your Blizzard.net is now a requirement to play Overwatch 2 due to a newly implemented protect scheme Blizzard titled the “Defense Matrix.” Its intention is to prevent disruptive players from being able to re-enter the game once banned, and players who smurf to own multiple accounts. In order to do this, Blizzard made it a necessity to have the phone numbers verify the ownership of these singular accounts.

To do this, they made it mandatory to allow and accept existing phone numbers to be used and linked only once, meaning that the given number is only ever connected to one account at a time. This means that Overwatch will only accept numbers from post-paid mobiles, and not pre-paid mobiles nor VOIP numbers to ensure that the numbers being given are still currently in use.

Since post-paid phones run on monthly bills, the cheapest way to obtain throwaway numbers would be by owning multiple pre-paid phones. Due to Overwatch 2’s “Defence Matrix” protect scheme it will block players from potentially using more than one account to smurf or behave uncooperatively on side accounts by using burner phones. Here’s hoping that this really does help create a more positive and team player friendly environment for Overwatch, since being vocally supportive and friendly is how to win a player-based game after all.

That’s it in a nutshell when it comes to Overwatch 2 needing your post-paid phone number!

Related: How to Merge Overwatch and Overwatch 2 Accounts