April 1 Update: Blizzard has announced that the Archives, Anniversary and Summer Games events will be replaced by three mini Overwatch Anniversary Remix events. You'll find full details on what to expect on the link above, for now though it's unclear if Winter Wonderland will undergo a similar change in 2022.
The Overwatch Winter Wonderland event is one of the most popular recurring in-game celebrations revolving around Christmas. Not only does it introduce more festive-themed skins into the game, but it also brings with it new winter-themed modes to break up the competitive gameplay that we get to experience all-year round. Either way, we should see the event return once again this year, and if you read on we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the Overwatch 2022 Winter Wonderland event.
When is the Overwatch Winter Wonderland event for 2022?
Blizzard usually releases the event at the same time each year, which makes it easy to work out when the event could start in 2022. You can take a look at the table below to see the dates for when the event has previously started and ended. As you can see, the event has traditionally started in early mid-December every year – normally on a Tuesday – and ends on the first week of January.
With all this information at our disposal, we suspect that the Overwatch Winter Wonderland Event will start on December 13, 2022. As for a start time, typically Overwatch events begin at around 2pm ET/6pm GMT. For now, this hasn’t been confirmed as official by Blizzard, so take this prediction with a pinch of salt for the time being.
| Year | Start Date | End Date |
| Winter Wonderland 2016 | December 13 | January 2 |
| Winter Wonderland 2017 | December 12 | January 1 |
| Winter Wonderland 2018 | December 11 | January 2 |
| Winter Wonderland 2019 | December 10 | January 2 |
| Winter Wonderland 2020 | December 15 | January 5 |
| Winter Wonderland 2021 | December 16 | January 6 |
What to expect?
For the time being it’s not clear what content will be available during the event, however, it seems most likely that players will once again be able to enjoy all four of the games special brawl modes, listed below:
Freezethaw Elimination – Get ready to freeze your foes in this brand-new 4v4 brawl! Instead of dying, players will be frozen solid in blocks of ice that their teammates can thaw. Freeze everyone on the enemy team to secure a win, but watch out—a defrosted foe might turn the tables and put you on ice instead. Earn new achievements and unlock unique sprays for proving your worth in the frosty fray!
Snowball Deathmatch – In this 8-person free-for-all brawl, players can store up to three lethal snowballs in Mei’s blaster, giving them multiple chances to ice the competition before having to reload.
Yeti Hunter – This 6-player brawl sets five Meis against one Yeti who uses Winston’s abilities. The Yeti must survive long enough to eliminate enemy Meis before they take him down. Which side will emerge from the snowstorm victorious?
Mei’s Snowball Offensive – Team up to ice over your enemies! In this 6v6 brawl, everyone plays as Mei, and her endothermic blaster has been modified to fire a single, super-powered snowball. Taking down an enemy only requires one hit, but a miss can be costly!
Overwatch Winter Wonderland Event Skins
With every new Overwatch event Blizzard typically adds a variety of new cosmetics for players to collect, including sprays, emotes, victory poses and of course, brand new hero skins.
Whilst players love every cosmetic item, it’s the winter themed skins that fans desire most of all. Traditionally we see a handful of new legendary skins released for the event, together with a few epic skins which can be acquired by in-game weekly challenges.
As well as the new skins on offer, players can also unlock older event skins released in years gone by, and normally they’re available at a knock-down price. At the time of writing, there have been 48 skins released (32 Legendary, 16 Epic) for the Overwatch Winter Wonderland event and we can’t wait to see how many more get added in 2022.
That’s everything you need to know about the Overwatch Winter Wonderland event in 2022, but make sure to bookmark this page and return as we’ll update it with the latest info as it becomes available.
