April 1, 2022

April 1 Update: The Overwatch Summer Games event for 2022 appears to have been cancelled in favour of Blizzard's new Overwatch Anniversary Remix events. You'll find full details on what this new event is, and how it replaces the traditional Summer Games event, on the link above!

The Overwatch Summer Games Event is the longest-running seasonal event in Blizzard’s popular hero shooter, so we imagine we’ll see it return once again in 2022. Not only does this mean yet more colourful off-beat skins, but also the return of the event’s fan favourite brawl, Lucioball. Keen to know more? Read on for everything you need to know about the Overwatch 2022 Summer Games event.

What is the Summer Games event for Overwatch?

The premise behind the Overwatch Summer Games event is pretty simple in that it’s just a celebration of those sunny summer months, on occasion tying into any Olympic events that might also coincide.

Typically you’ll find your favourite heroes decked out in skins that celebrate everything wonderful about the summer. But the crowning event is arguably Lucioball, Overwatch’s futuristic spin on football where you must team up to ‘boop the (giant) ball into the opponent’s goal’. The winner is naturally whichever team scores the most points before the timer runs down.

Fancy a more difficult challenge? Then try out the more faster, more chaotic ‘Lucioball Remix’. The goal is largely the same except for the fact that you’ll need to contend with two balls in play at the same time, with additional bonus balls also spawning across the arena for extra points.

When is the Overwatch Summer Games event for 2022?

For the time being Blizzard has not formally announced whether the Overwatch Summer Games event is returning for 2022, but it seems pretty likely given the annual nature of the event previously. We also know that Blizzard usually releases the event at the same time each year, which makes it easy to work out when the event could start. You can take a look at the table below to see the dates for when the event has previously started and ended.

Year	Start Date	End Date
Summer Games 2016	August 2	August 23
Summer Games 2017	August 8	August 29
Summer Games 2018	August 9	June 30
Summer Games 2019	July 16	August 5
Summer Games 2020	August 4	August 25
Summer Games 2021	July 20	August 10

As you can see, the event has traditionally started in mid-July to early August every year. We suspect that the July launch in 2021 was also due to the Tokyo Olympics kicking off on July 23. With this in mind, we suspect that the Overwatch Summer Games Event will start at some point after July 26, 2022, and no later than August 9.

As for a start time, typically Overwatch events begin at around 2pm ET/6pm GMT, so make sure to clear your afternoon if you intend to jump into the event right away.

Overwatch Summer Games 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 all sorts of cosmetics, it’s unquestionably the skins that fans desire most of all, and traditionally we see a handful of new legendary skins released, 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 Summer Games 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 51 skins released for the Overwatch Summer Games event and we can’t wait to see how many more get added in 2022.

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That’s everything you need to know about the Overwatch Summer Games 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.