Every year Blizzard recognizes Overwatch’s birthday with a multi-day celebration event, complete. The Anniversary event has plenty of seasonal brawls to enjoy, and a wide selection of cosmetic items to earn. The Overwatch Anniversary event 2022 will be no different. The official anniversary site still hosts 2021’s information, and the Overwatch social accounts haven't said too much about any plans. For now, here's everything we know so far about the Overwatch Anniversary event in 2022.
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Overwatch Anniversary Event 2022 Release Date
As with most seasonal events in Overwatch, it's not too difficult to work out when events start and end. That's because they usually follow a fairly consistent pattern. So we simply need to look back at when the events started in previous years to get a sense of when we can expect the Anniversary celebrations to begin in 2022.
Year | Started | Ended |
|---|---|---|
Overwatch Anniversary 2017 | May 23 | June 12 |
Overwatch Anniversary 2018 | May 22 | June 11 |
Overwatch Anniversary 2019 | May 21 | June 10 |
Overwatch Anniversary 2020 | May 19 | June 9 |
Overwatch Anniversary 2021 | May 18 | June 8 |
As we can see, Blizzard normally releases the Anniversary event on the Tuesday closest to the game's original release date, which took place on May 24, 2016.
With this in mind, it seems likely that the Overwatch Anniversary Event in 2022 will start on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. For the time being though this is just speculation, and we'll have to wait on an official announcement from Blizzard for confirmation.
What Modes and Events Are Available?
The Overwatch Anniversary event is somewhat different from the game's other seasonal events. Rather than having its own unique mode, the Overwatch Anniversary is a celebration of ALL modes and events. As such, the developers usually bring back all fan-favorite brawls from past seasonal events like Junkenstein’s Revenge, Lúcioball, Freezethaw Elimination, and more. Normally these are made available on rotation, rather than all available at once.
Overwatch Anniversary Event Challenges
One of the event’s staple features is the weekly challenges. Each week, you’re tasked with winning a set number of matches and earn a unique cosmetic item as a reward. Typically, the requirements ramp up with the value of the reward, e.g. you’ll win three matches for an icon, but nine matches for a Legendary Skin. We suspect we'll see even more challenges released in 2022.
Overwatch Anniversary Event 2022 Skins
As with every seasonal event in the game, there's normally a selection of new cosmetics to be released with the new Anniversary event, including sprays, emotes, victory poses and so much more.
Naturally, new skins are what's most coveted and we suspect we'll see more added in 2022. Normally this comes in the form of a handful of new Legendary skins, and a couple of Epic skins that can only be earned through the weekly challenges.
In addition, players will of course be able to unlock all past Anniversary event skins, which right now stands at 49 skins in total.
That's everything you need to know about the Overwatch Anniversary event for 2022. If you've been thinking of switching to a completely new role, why not take a look at a rundown of the Best Support, Tank and DPS Heroes in the game currently.