Seasonal events have quickly become a mainstream staple in the world of gaming, spanning their debut across various live-service titles, both free-to-play and premium releases alike. These special content drops often coincide with real-world holidays and celebrations, allowing players to enjoy different occasions while playing their favorite video games. Though varying from game to game, seasonal events often include unique challenges, cosmetic rewards, limited-time game modes, and seasonal-themed map changes to celebrate particular holidays — making them a welcome addition for players.
Seasonal events are often some of the most fun,intense, and memorable moments in video games, as they often bring about a whole roster of limited content and gameplay updates that change the pace and flow of what players are used to. While the concept of seasonal updates in gaming is widespread, some games handle these events much better than others. FromAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsto the ever-popularFortnite, here are some of the top games with the best seasonal events, ranked!
Kickstarting the list isAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, the latest installment in theAnimal Crossingseries. This game hosts a wide array of events that players can dive into, each fitting well with the game’s ability to make players feel part of their town’s community. When it comes toAnimal Crossing’sevents, some fans might immediately think of thevarious competition events such as the Fishing Tourney and Bug-Off events, each serving as mini-games players can enjoy during a particular season. These mini-games are a blast to try out but are far from the only seasonal events players can experience.
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsalso hosts various other events throughout the year, each tied to real-world holidays. These includeNew Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Lunar New Year, Bunny Day, Halloween, Toy Day, and more. Each event is hosted annually, and in addition to featuring seasonal items for players to grab, they also allow players to engage in various in-game activities to celebrate each festive occasion. While each event can be a lot of fun when experienced alone, they can be made even better whenbringing along friends and family.
Rocket Leagueis beloved for its high-octane vehicular soccer gameplay. While the game does a great job of keeping players hooked with its intense fun action andover-the-top goal explosions, it also offers a roster of great seasonal events that reward participation with lucrative prizes. The two most notable seasonal events areHaunted Hallows and Frosty Fest, each returning triumphantly every year. Haunted Hallows arrives just in time for Halloween, while Frosty Fest marks its debut for the Christmas season. Both eventsbring holiday-themed content into the game, serving as a great way for gamers to enjoy each occasion.
While the specific content for each event often changes annually, one constant is the ability forplayers to earn a variety of exclusive cosmetic rewardsfor their custom rides. In addition to holiday-themed cosmetic rewards, both Haunted Hallows and Frosty Fest occasionally introducewacky and fun limited-time modes, such as the Spooky Cube and Gotham City Rumble LTMs for Haunted Hallows, and the Winter Breakaway and Speed Demon LTMs for Frosty Fest. Both events are an incredible way to pass the time, and while some iterations are most definitely better than others, many players may just find themselves missing them once they are over.
Overwatch 2offers a variety of annual seasonal events that bring a breath of fresh air to the popular hero shooter. There are several major seasonal events players can look forward to throughout the year, each introducing holiday-themed content into the game, along with fun and unique gamemodes that offer a great change of pace from the usual competitive experience. For fans of everything creepy,Halloween Terroris a blast, introducing Halloween-themed cosmetic changes to many beloved characters, along withspooky-themed variants of some ofthe best maps like Eichenwaldeand Hollywood. The annual Halloween event alsofeatures co-op Brawl missions, with past events including Junkenstein’s Revenge and Trials of Sanctuary, where players face waves of enemies and bosses.
For those who enjoy a more festive atmosphere,Overwatch’sWinter Wonderlandevent is well worth the wait. The Winter Wonderland event includesholiday-themed map variants with a Christmas makeover. While much of the focus is on thevarious Christmas-themed skins forOverwatch 2’s roster of heroes, it also introducesfestive-themed game modes like Mei’s Snowball Offensive, Yeti Hunter, Freezethaw Elimination, and more. While both Halloween Terror and Winter Wonderland offer experiences for players towards the end of the year, there is also one more event players can gear up for.The Lunar New Yearcenters around the Chinese Zodiac,bringing vibrant Legendary skins into the game, along withgames such as Catch The Rooster, a Capture The Flag-style mode played on the redecorated Lijiang Tower map. Summer Games and Overwatch Anniversary are other exciting events fans can enjoy from summer to fall, eachoffering unique game modes, challenges, and exclusive cosmetics.
Call of Duty: Warzonehas its fair share of standout events, from the Operation Monarch event, which saw Godzilla and King Kong brawling onWarzone’sCaldera map, toThe Boyscrossing over withModern Warfare 2. However, the most anticipated events forWarzoneare its two annual seasonal events: The Haunting Event and CODMAS. The Haunting Event is easily the most popular of the two, as each rendition brings a ton of spooky content into the game. The originalHaunting of Verdanskevent was immensely popular when it was released in October 2020, giving the map a nightmarish makeover, introducing Halloween-themed items, and including jumpscares for players unfortunate enough to open a Supply Crate. This event also featured a limited-time game mode, Zombie Royale, where eliminated players were given a second chance by turning into the undead and fighting to earn back their right to rejoin the living.
Following The Haunting of Verdansk isThe Haunting of Al Mazrah, which cranked up the spooky factor even higher forWarzone 2.0. It carried over much of the same content from the previous event but alsointroduced nightmare-fueled bosseson the map for players to defeat and earn exclusive rewards. WhileCODMASmay be slightly overshadowed by The Haunting events, it is still a great seasonal event nonetheless.Modern Warfare 3andWarzone’srenditionbrought a festive winter theme to Urzikstan, along with featuring a zombified Santa Claus that players could take on aboard Urzikstan’s train. All in all,Warzoneoffers some great seasonal events for fans of the popular first-person shooter to enjoy, onesthat offer unique game modes, map changes, and other fun limited-time content.
Bungie’sDestiny 2is no stranger to offering players additional content, mainly in the form ofDestiny’sstellar expansions. However, the game also takes pride in its various seasonal events, which coincide with the four seasons of the year. The first major event is theGuardian Games, a spirited community event that splits the player base into three teams based on their chosen Guardian Class. The event’s goal is straightforward, with each renditionfeaturing numerous quests for players to completetoreceive unique rewards. Along the way, players earn medals, which contribute to their class’s overall score to determine the victor.
Following the Guardian Games isSolstice, a highly anticipated annual event thatoffers players a wide range of exclusive rewards, including Solstice Armor right from the start. In Solstice,players complete in-game activitiesto acquire Silver Leaves, which they can convert to Silver Ash in the Bonfire Bash game mode. Players can also complete event challenges to acquire Kindling, using both Silver Ash and Kindling to upgrade their armor. Later in the year, players can then dive into theFestival of the Lost and The Dawningevents, which both follow a similar pattern to Solstice, offering numerous challenges and exclusive rewards for participating. Each event is a blast to get into, but can also give players a competitive advantage if they can claim the various lucrative items each event offers.
When thinking of games with the best seasonal events,Fortniteis usually the first that comes to mind. The titular Battle Royale game alreadyfeatures its fair share of amazing eventsthroughout its history, but its annual seasonal events offer recurring festivities that players can dive into time and time again. The most popular ofFortnite’sseasonal events is, of course,Winterfest, a holiday celebration that allows players to enjoy Christmas in-game. Though Winterfest has undergone various renditions over the years, each onebrings Christmas-themed changes to theFortniteIsland,holiday-themed items like the Snowball Launcher and Presents, and aroster of free rewards for players to unlock.
Fortnite’sHalloween event,Fortnitemares, is yet another smash hit among the player base. This event follows suit with Winterfest, only this timebringing spooky-themed changes to theFortniteIsland, the annualreturn of the Pumpkin Launcher, along with even morefree rewards for players to unlock through challenges. Last but not least, there areFortnite’ssummer events, which, though not as big as the former two, still offer some greatsummer-themed rewardsto grind for, along with bringing itemslike Ice Cream Cones and the Firework Flare Gunto the loot pool. All in all,Fortnite’sseasonal events are a great change of pace for the popular Battle Royale game, granting players a plethora of content to enjoy annually.
