Games With The Best Seasonal Events, Ranked

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.

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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. From Animal Crossing: New Horizons to the ever-popular Fortnite, here are some of the top games with the best seasonal events, ranked!

6 Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Offers A Wide Range Of Fun & Unique Events Throughout The Year

Kickstarting the list is Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the latest installment in the Animal Crossing series. 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 to Animal Crossing's events, some fans might immediately think of the various 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 Horizons also hosts various other events throughout the year, each tied to real-world holidays. These include New 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 when bringing along friends and family.

5 Rocket League

Features Some Stellar Events Like Haunted Hallows & Frosty Fest

Rocket League is beloved for its high-octane vehicular soccer gameplay. While the game does a great job of keeping players hooked with its intense fun action and over-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 are Haunted 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 events bring holiday-themed content into the game, serving as a great way for gamers to enjoy each occasion.

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While the specific content for each event often changes annually, one constant is the ability for players to earn a variety of exclusive cosmetic rewards for their custom rides. In addition to holiday-themed cosmetic rewards, both Haunted Hallows and Frosty Fest occasionally introduce wacky 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.

4 Overwatch 2

Offers Seasonal Events That Feature New Skins, Game Modes, & More

Overwatch 2 offers 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 Terror is a blast, introducing Halloween-themed cosmetic changes to many beloved characters, along with spooky-themed variants of some of the best maps like Eichenwalde and Hollywood. The annual Halloween event also features co-op Brawl missions, with past events including Junkenstein's Revenge and Trials of Sanctuary, where players face waves of enemies and bosses.

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For those who enjoy a more festive atmosphere, Overwatch's Winter Wonderland event is well worth the wait. The Winter Wonderland event includes holiday-themed map variants with a Christmas makeover. While much of the focus is on the various Christmas-themed skins for Overwatch 2's roster of heroes, it also introduces festive-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 Year centers around the Chinese Zodiac, bringing vibrant Legendary skins into the game, along with games 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, each offering unique game modes, challenges, and exclusive cosmetics.

3 Call Of Duty: Warzone

Offers Standout Holiday Events Like The Haunting & CODMAS

Call of Duty: Warzone has its fair share of standout events, from the Operation Monarch event, which saw Godzilla and King Kong brawling on Warzone's Caldera map, to The Boys crossing over with Modern Warfare 2. However, the most anticipated events for Warzone are 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 original Haunting of Verdansk event 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 is The Haunting of Al Mazrah, which cranked up the spooky factor even higher for Warzone 2.0. It carried over much of the same content from the previous event but also introduced nightmare-fueled bosses on the map for players to defeat and earn exclusive rewards. While CODMAS may be slightly overshadowed by The Haunting events, it is still a great seasonal event nonetheless. Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone's rendition brought 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, Warzone offers some great seasonal events for fans of the popular first-person shooter to enjoy, ones that offer unique game modes, map changes, and other fun limited-time content.

2 Destiny 2

Includes Competitive Community Events & Other Seasonal Holidays

Bungie's Destiny 2 is no stranger to offering players additional content, mainly in the form of Destiny's stellar 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 the Guardian 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 rendition featuring numerous quests for players to complete to receive unique rewards. Along the way, players earn medals, which contribute to their class's overall score to determine the victor.

Following the Guardian Games is Solstice, a highly anticipated annual event that offers players a wide range of exclusive rewards, including Solstice Armor right from the start. In Solstice, players complete in-game activities to 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 the Festival of the Lost and The Dawning events, 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.

1 Fortnite

Features Massive Reoccurring Seasonal Events Like Winterfest & Fortnitemares

When thinking of games with the best seasonal events, Fortnite is usually the first that comes to mind. The titular Battle Royale game already features its fair share of amazing events throughout its history, but its annual seasonal events offer recurring festivities that players can dive into time and time again. The most popular of Fortnite's seasonal 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 one brings Christmas-themed changes to the Fortnite Island, holiday-themed items like the Snowball Launcher and Presents, and a roster of free rewards for players to unlock.

Fortnite's Halloween event, Fortnitemares, is yet another smash hit among the player base. This event follows suit with Winterfest, only this time bringing spooky-themed changes to the Fortnite Island, the annual return of the Pumpkin Launcher, along with even more free rewards for players to unlock through challenges. Last but not least, there are Fortnite's summer events, which, though not as big as the former two, still offer some great summer-themed rewards to grind for, along with bringing items like Ice Cream Cones and the Firework Flare Gun to the loot pool. All in all, Fortnite's seasonal events are a great change of pace for the popular Battle Royale game, granting players a plethora of content to enjoy annually.

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