Overwatch players discover secret “dark mode” fix after menu brightness complaints

After players complained about the searing brightness that some Overwatch main menu screens can produce, one enterprising fan has actually come up with a way to enable dark mode right now, with no update needed from Blizzard.

Every single time Overwatch puts an all-white background on the game’s main menu screen players complain that their retinas are burned every time they go back to the main screen.

This happened once again with the release of Ana’s new Haroeris Overwatch League skin, and as soon as Blizzard applied the update players complained about getting “flashbanged” by the bright white screen.

It’s not hard to see why players would be asking for a night mode, as the menu screen will literally leave an impression on your retinas, but there’s actually a way to go dark right now, with no help from Blizzard, either.

We have Reddit user HeelMePlz to thank for finding this trick, which Dexerto has tested and can confirm it does work for the PC version of the game.

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Activating this dark mode “hack,” if you can even call it that, is extremely simple. First, you need to load into Overwatch. On the main menu, you hold the ESC key. While holding the key, simply click the Overwatch League menu, and voila! You now have dark mode activated in Overwatch.

There are a couple of drawbacks to using this fix though, and the most obvious is that it’s only available for PC players, so those on console will still have to suffer through that blinding white light to find a match.

Next, is that you aren’t able to open loot boxes while dark mode is activated. We don’t know why exactly, but while we were using it, the loot box screen wouldn’t come up at all.

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Finally, it’s not a permanent fix, either. This means each time you return to the menu screen following a match, you’ll have to activate dark mode all over again. This is a minor inconvenience though, compared to getting literally blinded each time you go back to the main screen.