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Overwatch 2 Anniversary 2023 brings back a year's worth of skins and game modes

It might not feel that way (for a variety of reasons) but Overwatch 2 is about to celebrate its first birthday.

Ozzie Mejia

September 19, 2023 12:45 PM

Blizzard Entertainment

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It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Overwatch 2 released. Part of that is because it feels like the first Overwatch never really left. Nevertheless, Blizzard is celebrating a full year of its sequel with the special Overwatch 2 Anniversary 2023 event. The best way to celebrate the year that was is to bring back some of its best game modes and rewards, which is just what Blizzard is doing.

The Overwatch 2 Anniversary 2023 event will unfold over the course of three weeks, each of which will feature the return of limited-time game modes from the past year. Here's what players can look out for, courtesy of the Overwatch website:

• Week 1: Winter Wonderland (Mei's Snowball Offense, 1v5 Yeti Hunt, Flash Freeze) and Battle for Olympus (Free-For-All Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch with buffed Ultimates)
• Week 2: Classic Overwatch Assault in Arcade Mode, Catch-A-Mari, Starwatch: Galactic Rescue
• Week 3: Summer Games (Lucioball, Winston's Beach Volleyball), Mischief & Magic

Special challenges will appear throughout these anniversary events, giving players a chance to pick up valuable Overwatch Credits. Players can earn up to 3,000 Overwatch Credits, which can be spent on returning premium skins from throughout the year. This will mark a rare second opportunity to pick these up, but they won't be around for very long.

The Overwatch 2 Anniversary Event will run through the game's first official anniversary date of October 4. For being more Overwatch, it was fine. After all, even if it's more Overwatch, Overwatch is a pretty good game. With that said, the following year was a rocky one for the Overwatch development team, especially as the original vision of a robust single-player campaign crumbled. We look forward to a better year for Overwatch 2 ahead as the Anniversary 2023 event runs through Monday, October 9. The Anniversary Shop with all of the returning premium skins will remain open until Monday, October 16.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?