This time of year, Overwatch players are ready for a real party. The game’s annual Anniversary event, which takes place in May, is always a big hit due to the unique qualities of the celebration. During the event, players can unlock any skin, emote, or spray from the game’s past events.
The Overwatch Anniversary event celebrates Overwatch’s original release date on May 24, 2016. The first few Anniversary events began around or near that exact date. Due to updated developer availability and changes to the lengths of events, we could be looking at an earlier start time for 2020.
Last year, the Anniversary event began on May 21. In 2018, the event began on May 22. Both event start dates were aligned to the nearest regular “update” day when developers would push live patches.
In 2020, developers have regularly been putting out updates on both Tuesdays and Thursdays. At the start of the year, developers noted that they’d be focusing on Thursday updates. Since the COVID-19 crisis, however, updates have come on both days due to developers working from home.
Most estimates would then put the 2020 Anniversary start date on May 19 or May 22. The last few events have also started on a Tuesday, so May 19 is the most likely start date.
Multiple sources have also posted a screengrab of a possible leaked post by an Overwatch developer detailing the May 19 patch notes. These notes introduce the 2020 Anniversary event along with other changes, like an improved communication wheel.
In any case, this is the time to begin saving up that gold for Anniversary skins. Overwatch events normally last only three weeks, so players will likely only have until the start of June to unlock all the skins they missed from the past year.
