Anniversary Event
- When: May 23, 2017 to June 12, 2017
- 134 new items
- 11 skins
- 24 emotes
- 48 voice lines
- 25 sprays
- 26 player icons
- No event-exclusive Victory Poses and Highlight Intros
- New Arcade Brawl: None
- New Maps: Necropolis, Castillo, and Black Forest
Overwatch’s Anniversary event is currently ongoing, celebrating the game’s first year since launch. In that time, Blizzard has reached over 30 million players with its online multiplayer shooter and released five other seasonal events. Compared to the others, the Anniversary event is probably the weakest update so far.
According to one Reddit user who did the math, buying all the new items from the Hero Gallery costs a whopping 56,475 credits. It’s not surprising, since this update has the most new cosmetics so far. It’s important to note that playing the game rewards you with loot boxes to bring that cost down, and do not spend any credits until the last day of the event. You can also straight up buy loot boxes with real money, but the chances of receiving better loot does not increase. As compared to the the previous seasonal events, this one is the most expensive, credits-wise, by far.
There is also no new Arcade mode to tie the event together, only rule changes for the 3-on-3 Elimination and 1-on-1 Duel modes. The three new maps are small because they cater to the two game modes, which means you may not see them if you are not a fan of going solo or limited teams. Blizzard has placed more emphasis on the actual first anniversary of the game, rather than the event itself, by offering a Game of the Year edition and a free weekend for all platforms.
