Warzone players slam Activision for “wrongful” Overwolf bans

Lauren Bergin
Two soldiers move through a briefing room with guns

Call of Duty Warzone players have noticed a wave of bans when running popular video recording software, Overwolf, on Windows 11.

With Call of Duty’s newest installment, Vanguard, just around the corner, players have been flocking back to the title’s battle royale, Warzone, in order to get into the spirit.

Vanguard will introduce all new maps to the fray, including one based in the Pacific. Some players, though, might not be able to play it through no fault of their own.

After receiving a permanent ban while running Overwolf’s Windows 11 Insider, one player has sparked quite the debate.

two world war ii planes fly over water
The battle for the Pacific is set to be one of Vanguard’s most unique features – if you can play it.

Warzone players banned using Overwolf on Windows 11

Voicing their frustration on Reddit, one angry player warns “do not use Windows 11 and Overwolf at the same time.”

“After getting permanently banned a few weeks ago because of a well known and apparently rather common issue – that being that if you attempt to open Cold War while Overwolf is open and you’re running an Insider build of Windows 11 – I have finally received a response from Activision telling me that despite being innocent, they cannot unban my account,” they write. “They have acknowledged the error in the ban, but are refusing to lift the ban as all bans are final.”

“If someone from Activision ends up reading this, sort your game out,” they conclude. “I’ll admit, I should have done some research into Windows 11 before upgrading but who the hell would assume that having the newest OS and a popular Video Recording software would result in a ban…? It doesn’t even cross someone’s mind.”

Warzone players hit back at Activision

As hinted at in the original post, this is an issue that appears to plague others who are also running the game on Windows 11.

“Good post! I switched to 11 and bam! Got perma banned.. I’ve spent the last week grinding and Activision offer no solution for it… Just goes to show you how backwards Activision is!” fumes one commenter.

“Insane they are not unbanning when [they] confirmed faulty ban,” states another, while a final response notes “I can’t wait for the wave of wrongful bans that will follow Ricochet’s release…. And probably 99% of them will not be reversed.”

warzone and overwolf logos in white on a black background
Overwolf have been quick to the respond to the news of bans.

Overwolf respond

In an October 26 Medium post, Overwolf addressed the ongoing ban issues. Writing: “Dear Call of Duty players, we are aware of a number of users who have been banned after playing Cold War and Warzone on Windows 11 while using Overwolf,” Overwolf copywriter Liri Katz goes on to explain what that the platform is making adjustments to combat the issue.

While highlighting that Overwolf “are not responsible for the bans… We have released an update to our games list to change the way the Overwolf overlay works and will no longer trigger a ban from Activision while using Windows 11. It’s important to note that in the 24 hours following this change, we have not had any new ban reports.”

Additionally, the team are “working closely with the very top levels at Activision, and we’ll do whatever we can to help those whose accounts have been banned. We can’t promise it will work, but we’ll give it our best shot.”

As the issue continues to cause havoc, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not Activision choose to reverse the bans.

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About The Author

Lauren was formerly Dexerto's Features Editor and resident Diablo Sorceress. With two Master's degrees under her belt and a lot more Steam achievements, she specializes in all things Blizzard and Riot Games, with some Lost Ark and FFXIV on the side.