Overwatch is free-to-play over the festive period

D.Va Christmas skin in the Winter Wonderland event

(Image credit: Blizzard)

If you somehow still haven't gotten round to giving Overwatch a try, now's the perfect time to do so. The game's currently free-to-play until January 2, letting you dip your toe into the hero shooter waters.

The free trial is unrestricted—you can access the full roster of characters and modes, play, level up and collect loot boxes like everyone else. If you get hooked and decide to buy the game, any progress you've made will carry over from the trial as long as you're using the same Blizzard account. Overwatch has just kicked off its Winter Wonderland event too, so you'll be able to play through the weekly challenges and nab some new outfits for Tracer, Symmetra and Zarya.

I got back into Overwatch in a big way earlier this year, sinking a ton of time into it with my friends. I'm not much of a shooter gal, but I've always enjoyed how accessible Overwatch feels to genre newbies. With Overwatch 2 suffering delays and development troubles—exacerbated by the horrific Activision-Blizzard allegations which led them to rename a key character—we'll likely see the original kicking around for quite a bit longer.

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.