In Overwatch 2, rank decay was a system meant to downrank a player’s competitive tier and division when they hadn’t played for a while. It wasn’t very popular, and rank decay is being removed for season 4. However, a glitch in the latest update is causing it to appear as though players are being hit by rank decay, leading to them receiving lower-tier rewards than they should have.
Why am I being affected by rank decay in Overwatch 2 season 4?
Odds are, you’re not actually being affected by rank decay in Overwatch 2 season 4. Instead, a bug occurred with the latest update that caused some players’ final ranks to be modified. Fortunately, Blizzard is aware of the problem, and a fix should be coming soon:
“We are investigating an issue where Season Three end-of-season final ranks were modified causing lower tier rewards issued for some players.”
So, if you received lower-tier rewards than you were entitled to, you just have to wait for the error to be corrected.
Fortunately, with the start of season 4, rank decay is now gone from Overwatch 2. It was unpopular and only served as another layer of FOMO. With the game declining in popularity, Blizzard can’t afford to alienate the users it has left and wisely made the decision not to greet returning players with a rank reduction.