Blizzard Announces Overwatch Archives Event for April 2021

The Overwatch Archives story-driven event is making a comeback this year.

Activision-Blizzard took to the game's official Twitter profile at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 4 to announce the return of the Overwatch Archives event. The company dropped a flashy trailer showing off some of the most popular heroes at work, including Moira, Tracer, Genji, and Mercy. It ended with the dates of the event, April 6 - 27.

Here's everything we know about the upcoming Archives in 2021.

Overwatch Archives Event Returns

Overwatch Archives 2021 will start on Tuesday, April 6, and end on Tuesday, April 27. While the trailer dropped on the announcement tweet was eye-catching, it didn't provide a lot of insight into what players can expect this year. Other than Moira blasting through enemies, Tracer racing through what looks like King's Row on a motorbike, and a mysterious figure wielding glowing red blades who looks suspiciously like Echo, there isn't much to go off of.

Players can likely expect the return of old Archives skins as seen with Reyes in the trailer as well as a few new ones to go with the mission's theme—as always.

Unfortunately, it looks like Blizzard is keeping a tight lid on this event until its launch in a few days.

The Overwatch Archives are a series of player vs environment (PvE) story-driven missions meant to explain the lore and history of the in-game world. Each one focuses on a different unique point in Overwatch history, showcasing the deep interpersonal connections between members and how they earned their spot in either the Overwatch heroes team or Talon terrorist group.

Players have the chance to earn special cosmetics for featured heroes that tie into the larger story, such as skins, icons, sprays, emotes, poses, and more. Additionally, they gain access to a unique Arcade mode, Brawl, which essentially functions as a smaller instance of the combat in the Archives mission without the storytelling.

In years past, the plots have centered on Tracer's first mission in 2017, the rise of Blackwatch in 2018, and arrest of Doomfist's benefactor within Havana in 2019. In 2020, the missions became available again, but no new content or story was introduced.