To celebrate the beginning of Pride month in June, Overwatch 2 Season 4 has one final trick up its sleeve with a fully-fledged pride parade to celebrate the franchises' LGBTQA+ community and characters.

Overwatch has long featured characters of diverse backgrounds and sexualities, like Tracer, Soldier: 76 and the new addition of Lifeweaver as the game's openly queer characters. Overwatch 2's Pride event will kick off on June 1 to celebrate Pride Month - here's everything you need to know, including all map changes, new lore, and even some freebies players can get their hands on!

Overwatch 2 Pride Event: Start And End Dates

As mentioned, the Overwatch 2 Pride event starts on Thursday, June 1, in line with the start of the actual Pride month in June.

The Pride event will last for the remainder of Season 4 before the rollout of Season 5 begins on Tuesday, June 13.

Overwatch 2 Pride Event: Map Changes

The Overwatch 2 Pride event will see some slight tweaks to Midtown, the Hybrid Push map. Instead of USA flags being dotted around the map, some of them will be replaced by the iconic Pride flag for the duration of the event. The iconic crosswalk after the first objective is also a rainbow in celebration of the event.

Midtown isn't the only map seeing some Pride-themed decorations. Watchpoint Gibraltar now features the hero's quarters. Tracer has a framed selfie of her and her partner, Emily, marking her first appearance in the game.

Overwatch 2 Pride Event: New Lore

Releasing alongside the Pride event is a new short comic from the Overwatch team, expanding upon the already-solid Overwatch universe lore.

The short story, titled "As You Are," sees Baptiste, Cassidy, and Pharah on a plane flying back from an Overwatch mission in Seoul. Here we discover more about Baptiste and Pharah's character identities and the almost-confirmation of the fan-favorite Pharmercy, as Pharah reveals she is in love with Angela Ziegler, aka Mercy. You can read "As You Are" for yourself here.

Overwatch 2 Pride Event: Free Rewards

As the Overwatch universe unfolds, players will gain some in-game cosmetics during the event. All they have to do to earn these free rewards is log into their player account while the event runs from June 1.

The Pride player icons and name cards will include all the LGBTQ+ flags that players can equip to represent their own identities and sexualities, as well as celebrate their favorite queer heroes.

Players will also earn a free spray, which depicts Tracer and her girlfriend, Emily. Emily was first introduced in the Overwatch comic Reflections, and is exciting to see her slowly making an appearance in the game.

Final Thoughts

Overwatch 2 has a diverse development team, and the Pride event is one way of celebrating that. Game Director Aaron Keller says this year's inaugural Pride event is "just the beginning" of Pride in Overwatch 2, to create a world worth fighting for in the coming seasons.

The Blizzard employee network have also launched some pride-themed apparel for players to pick up and celebrate all diverse identities and the fantastic community Overwatch 2 has. It will be exciting to see what they come up with next year as Blizzard Entertainment and all the game teams continue to develop authentic queer characters for players to enjoy and empathize with.

Want more Overwatch 2 news? Rivalry has got you covered with an OW2 hero unlock guide, the best crosshairs, why PvE was canceled, and more!