Overwatch Lunar New Year Event Starts on January 24

Early Start for the Lunar New Year

Blizzard has now officially announced the Lunar New Year event start date for Overwatch.

Surprisingly, it is much earlier than some rumours suggested and will actually begin as early as next week. Specifically starting on January 24th and will run for a little over three weeks. The actual Lunar New Year for 2019 takes place on February 5th.

Squeal with joy!

Overwatch Lunar New Year returns January 24. 🏮 🐷 pic.twitter.com/CLBXmBCrEX

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) January 17, 2019

What Can Users Expect?

This year will be the Year of the Pig, following 2018’s Year of the Dog and is the last in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. As usual, new content for the game will have a Chinese Lunar New Year theme. This includes new skins, sprays, emotes and possibly slight map design changes to reflect the season.

In the Chinese zodiac, the pig is associated with laziness and is not regarded as a smart animal. On the other hand, it is also associated with wealth and prosperity. So maybe the Overwatch loot box system will be granting more coin rewards during this season.

Last year, Blizzard added a new Capture the Flag map and they will be releasing new content previews daily until the event starts.

How Can Players Get These Event Items?

Fans can either buy the new items with in-game currency or unlock them via loot boxes. Keep in mind that loot box content generates after reception. So it is not possible to hoard loot boxes for this event prior.

Plus, the event loot boxes are separate from regular loot boxes as they have a higher chance of getting event content.

Epic skins and emotes usually fetch for 75 to 250 credits depending on complexity. Meanwhile, Legendary skins and emotes range from 1000 to 3000 credits. All will be available only starting January 24th after the update rolls out.