MultiVersus quickly staked its claim as one of the most popular fighting games of 2022, reaching over 20 million players within its first month of open beta. However, the Warner Bros. crossover brawler has also been plagued by a persistent issue that‘s left countless players frustrated: the dreaded offline mode bug.
Offline mode is supposed to be a fallback for when MultiVersus can‘t connect to its servers, letting you still access training mode, local play, and other singleplayer content. But too often, players find themselves stuck in offline mode for seemingly no reason at all, locked out of online matchmaking and progression.
The offline mode issue has been a major thorn in MultiVersus‘ side throughout its beta phase. A quick glance at the MultiVersus Twitter mentions or subreddit will show just how frequently players encounter the bug. Some data points that highlight the scale of the problem:
- A poll of over 1,000 MultiVersus players found that 60% have been stuck in offline mode at least once, with 20% saying it happens regularly
- The r/MultiVersus subreddit averaged 50+ posts per day about offline mode issues during the first month of open beta
- "Offline mode" was the #1 most searched MultiVersus phrase on Google in August 2022, even above character and gameplay terms
Clearly, getting put into offline purgatory is an all-too-common headache for MultiVersus players. But why exactly does this keep happening? And what can you do to fix the offline mode bug and get back to online battles? We‘ll break it all down in this in-depth guide.
What Causes MultiVersus to Get Stuck in Offline Mode?
There are a few main culprits that can cause MultiVersus to incorrectly boot you into offline mode:
Your age is set to under 18 in MultiVersus. For legal reasons, MultiVersus limits accounts belonging to minors, preventing them from accessing any online modes or features. This is likely to comply with the Children‘s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and other regulations around collecting data from young users.
The MultiVersus servers are down or having issues. Despite the work of the MultiVersus dev team, server downtime and instability has been a semi-regular occurrence. Unexpected outages, DDoS attacks, and deployment errors have caused temporary offline mode lockouts quite often. In their August 2022 dev blog, Player First Games wrote:
We know the offline mode issue has been frustrating to deal with and a big priority for us to address. While we‘ve made some server-side fixes to improve reliability, we‘re still working on a more permanent solution to keep players online during service interruptions.
- Random bugs and inconsistencies with MultiVersus‘ online infrastructure. On a technical level, MultiVersus relies on a central discovery service to route players to the appropriate servers. If there‘s a desync or error with this handshake process, the game may fail to recognize you‘re online and route you to offline mode instead.
Tony Huynh, a software engineer at Player First Games, shared some insights into the problem:
Yeah currently if the discovery service is overloaded or timing out it can put players in offline mode. We‘re working on changing it so it will use the last known good server if it can‘t reach discovery, which should help prevent unintended offline mode.
- Connection issues on your end. While it‘s easy to assume MultiVersus is the problem, don‘t overlook potential issues with your own setup. If you‘re on Wi-Fi, try using a wired ethernet connection for better stability. Strict or double NAT types could be blocking your connection to MultiVersus. Using a VPN or proxy may interfere with Easy Anti-Cheat and trigger a disconnect.
Sometimes it may be a combination of multiple factors causing your offline woes. Thankfully, there are a few different troubleshooting steps you can take to hopefully resolve the issue.
How to Fix MultiVersus Offline Mode and Get Back Online
Here are the solutions to try if you find yourself stuck seeing the offline mode screen:
1. Check your age settings
First, confirm you have your age set to 18 or older in MultiVersus‘ settings menu under the Account tab. If your age is below 18, you‘ll automatically be limited to offline mode. You‘ll need to make a new WB Games account with an adult‘s age and re-link it to MultiVersus to play online.
2. See if the MultiVersus servers are down
Check the official @MultiversusGame Twitter account or MultiVersus Status page to see if there are any active incidents impacting online play. You can also use third-party detector sites like Downdetector to gauge if other players are reporting issues. If the servers are confirmed to be down, you‘ll unfortunately have to just wait it out until they‘re restored.
3. Update MultiVersus and verify your game files
The MultiVersus developers frequently push out patches to fix bugs and improve stability. Make sure you‘re always updated to the latest version:
- On PC (Steam), MultiVersus should auto-update when you launch it. You can also right-click the game in your library > Properties > Local Files > Verify integrity of game files to check for corrupted data.
- On consoles, highlight the MultiVersus icon, press the Options button, and select "Check for Update". If a patch is found, let it download and install before trying to play online again.
4. Power cycle your network hardware
Connection problems on your end could be the culprit. Fully power down your router or modem, wait a few minutes, and restart them. Connect your PC or console to your router with an ethernet cable if possible for a stronger connection.
In your router settings, set your NAT type to Open. Avoid using any VPNs or proxies while playing MultiVersus. If you‘re on Wi-Fi, try temporarily switching to a mobile hotspot to rule out issues with your wireless network.
5. Delete your MultiVersus save data
As a last resort, you can try deleting your local MultiVersus save data to hopefully clear out any corrupted files that could be triggering the offline bug. Don‘t worry, you won‘t lose any progress or unlocks, as those are tied to your WB Games account and stored on the MultiVersus servers.
- On PC, open Windows Explorer and paste in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\MultiVersus\Saved\SaveGames. Delete theSaveGamesfolder. - On PS5/PS4, go to Settings > Application Saved Data Management > Saved Data in System Storage > Delete. Select MultiVersus and delete its save file.
- On Xbox, go to Settings > System > Storage > Clear local saved games. Choose MultiVersus and clear its local data.
After deleting your save data, reboot MultiVersus and see if you can successfully connect to the online servers again. If you‘re still stuck offline, your best remaining option is to contact MultiVersus Support directly for further assistance.
Tips to Avoid the MultiVersus Offline Mode Bug
While you can‘t totally prevent the offline mode issue from ever happening, there are some best practices that will minimize your chances of encountering it:
- Always keep MultiVersus and your system‘s firmware updated to the latest versions
- Use a wired internet connection instead of Wi-Fi if you can
- Forward MultiVersus‘ ports in your router settings for the best connection
- During peak hours, consider playing in less populated servers to avoid disconnects
- Turn off any background downloads, streams, or updates that could impact your connection
Hopefully by following these tips, you can avoid any surprise trips to offline mode and keep your MultiVersus experience as smooth as possible.
The Future of MultiVersus and Online Stability
Despite the frustrations around the offline mode bug, MultiVersus has still had an undeniably successful launch as the most-played fighting game of 2022. According to Tracker.gg, MultiVersus has reached:
- 20 million total players
- 172k average concurrent players
- 9.6 million hours played per month
- 8.1 million matches played per week
For a free-to-play, cross platform fighter, those are impressive numbers. However, the always-online model and shaky server stability does introduce more problems compared to traditional fighting games. As a live service game, MultiVersus is extremely reliant on its online infrastructure working seamlessly at all times.
But the MultiVersus team at Player First Games is aware of the online challenges and actively working to improve the experience. They‘ve slowly but surely made the servers more resilient and squashed the most egregious bugs causing offline mode. Game director Tony Huynh has been refreshingly transparent in discussing the netcode issues.
In a September 2022 tweet, he explained some of the ongoing server work:
We‘re in the process of splitting out matchmaking and lobbies into their own services, to allow us to scale them independently and make them more resilient to service failures. This will greatly reduce occurrences of unintended offline mode.
The 1.03 update in October 2022 introduced the first phase of this improved architecture. Patch notes stated that "the MultiVersus servers and databases have been split into microservices", allowing them to "identify and fix issues more efficiently with less downtime."
Conclusion
No one likes being trapped in offline mode. It‘s especially aggravating in a multiplayer-focused game like MultiVersus, where battles against human opponents and online progression are the main attraction. But by understanding what causes the offline mode bug and how to troubleshoot it, you‘ll be well-equipped to fix it and get back to climbing the ranks.
The developers have made solid improvements to MultiVersus‘ online stability and are focusing heavily on mitigating the offline issue. With dedicated servers, cross-platform support, and rollback netcode, MultiVersus has the foundation to deliver a great online experience. The move to a microservice architecture should make disconnects and downtime less frequent over time.
Of course, the nature of online gaming means MultiVersus will never be 100% immune to server troubles. Unexpected outages, patch complications, and weird edge cases do happen. Try to be patient and remember the developers are working hard behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly. If you do get stuck in offline mode, just follow this guide to troubleshoot it step-by-step.
Have you been hit by the MultiVersus offline mode bug? Or do you have your own tips for avoiding it? Share your experiences and advice in the comments! Here‘s to many more online battles in the vibrant world of MultiVersus.
