Diablo: 2 Resurrected’s ‘failed to authenticate’ error explained

Diablo 2: Resurrected has had a shaky start. 

In typical Blizzard fashion, the hotly anticipated rerelease of the 2000 classic has been plagued with problems since launching on Sept. 23. Server outages, connectivity issues, and a neverending list of error codes have stolen the spotlight for the game.

Some players have attempted to join a lobby and have been met with an error that reads: “failed to authenticate.” This error is a byproduct of D2R’s popularity, leading to a strain on the servers. 

The high level of server traffic has taken a toll on Blizzard’s fragile servers, which can never seem to handle launch days. A similar error code occurs whenever a new World of Warcraft expansion goes live. 

Related: Diablo 2: Resurrected’s ‘issue occurred while communicating with the game servers’ error explained

When the servers are down, “failed to authenticate” also tends to make an appearance. There is nothing players can do about the error but sit and wait patiently for Blizzard to fix the servers.  

To address the problems the game has faced since it launched, Blizzard has already issued an unscheduled maintenance and an “emergency” maintenance, according to a post by Blizzard’s customer support on social media. 

The developer continues to access the situation and act accordingly.