Overwatch Anniversary Event 2021: start time and details

Anniversary events for online games are always a grand old time. Just the fact that a game could maintain a healthy playerbase for over a year is a testament to its staying power, and that only gets more impressive as the years go on. Case in point, it’s just about the anniversary of the original launch of Overwatch back in 2016. You know what that means: it’s time for the Anniversary Event! So, when does the Overwatch Anniversary Event start?

Overwatch Anniversary Event Start Time

Well, considering today’s May 18th, and the Overwatch Anniversary Event starts on May 18th, I’d say it starts… right now! Or, well, to be specific, it’ll start at around 7:00 PM British time, which is about 2:00 PM Eastern time here in the States. After the event starts today, it’ll run for the next few weeks before coming to an end on June 8th.

Overwatch Anniversary Event Details

So, what’s there to look forward to? Firstly, over the next few weeks, several of the classic Brawl modes will be rotating on a daily basis. Starting today, the schedule goes:

• Lucioball
• Junkenstein’s Revenge
• Junkenstein Challenges
• Winter Wonderland
• Lunar New Year
• Archives

And it will loop like that for the event’s duration.

Secondly, there will be three weekly challenges, each with their own set of cosmetics themed to a new Epic skin. Playing in 9, 18, and 27 games will net you icons, sprays, and Epic skins, in that order.

• May 18 – May 25: Cybermedic Ana

• May 25 – June 1: Bird of Paradise Echo

• June 1-June 8: 8-Ball Wrecking Ball

Overwatch Anniversary Event Skins

But I know what you’re really here for: you wanna know about the new Legendary skins, right? Well, there’s five new skins, this time for Baptiste, Moira, Sombra, Doomfist, and Junkrat. They are:

• Funky Baptiste

• Venus Moira

• Black Cat Sombra

• Gladiator Doomfist

• Junkfood Junkrat

All of these skins will be obtainable in Anniversary loot boxes. Additionally, for the duration of the event, almost all previous event skins can be obtained from Anniversary loot boxes, barring ones that were restricted to particular challenges. Log in during the event, and you’ll receive one complimentary Legendary loot box, guaranteed to contain at least one Legendary skin.

Lastly, the developers will be holding a special livestream on May 20th to talk about the development of the upcoming Overwatch 2. If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask, drop it in the comments of this tweet, and it might get picked!