Overwatch 2 Is Bringing Back Loot Boxes (With a Twist)

Ah, Overwatch loot boxes, that golden glow. The four items tumbling out. The dopamine hit when a Legendary skin drops. If you played the original Overwatch, you remember it well. And guess what? It's back.

Blizzard brought loot boxes back to Overwatch 2 with Season 15: Honor & Glory, and the biggest change is simple: you can't buy them with in-game currency. Instead, every single loot box is earned by playing the game. That's it.

How the New Loot Boxes Work

Each box drops four cosmetic items, containing skins, emotes, sprays, and voice lines, pulled from both OW1 and OW2's massive cosmetic library. We're talking 530+ Legendary items, 834 Epics, and thousands more across Rare and Common tiers.

The drop protection is solid, too: Every box guarantees at least one Rare item. Open five boxes, and you're guaranteed an Epic. Open twenty, and a Legendary is locked in. The base Legendary drop rate sits at 5.10% per item, so even outside the pity system, your odds are pretty good.

How to Earn Loot Boxes

There are many ways to get them, and hardcore players can earn over 100 in a single season. Here's the quick rundown:

Method	What You Get	How It Works
Weekly Rewards	Ongoing	Play 9 matches per box (wins count double)
Free Battle Pass	1 Legendary Box	Available to everyone
Premium Battle Pass	3 Legendary Boxes	Includes the free track box + 2 extra
Season Launch Bonus	Up to 10/week	Play 15 games per week (limited time)
Event Challenges	Varies	Seasonal events drop extra boxes
Twitch Drops	Common + Epic Boxes	Watch OW2 streams
Discord Quests	5 Boxes	Quick 15-minute play quest

Essentially, the weekly counter is the bread and butter; just play matches, win when you can, and the boxes stack up naturally. Easy.

Old Loot Boxes vs. New: What Actually Changed

Here's the side-by-side for OG players who want the full picture:

Feature	Original OW (2016–2022)	OW2 (Season 15+)
Buy with real money	Yes	No
Earned through gameplay	Yes	Yes
Items per box	4	4
Legendary pity timer	Every 25 boxes	Every 20 boxes
Drop rate transparency	Minimal	Fully published
Duplicate protection	Added later	Built in from day one
Cosmetic pool	OW1 only	OW1 + OW2 combined

Blizzard basically kept the fun part, ripping open boxes and getting rewarded for playing, and ditched the part that got them in hot water with regulators. Smart move.

Why Players Wanted Loot Boxes Back in the First Place

Sounds weird, right? The gaming world spent years dunking on loot boxes, categorizing them as social slots. But OW players weren't missing the gambling; they were missing the rewards.

In the original game, you got loot boxes just for playing. Level up? Box. Finish a challenge? Box. It felt generous. OW2 replaced that with an expensive shop and a battle pass that didn't hand out much for free. Players felt like they were getting less for doing more.

Season 15 fixes that. The boxes are back, the rewards flow again, and your wallet stays untouched. Everybody wins.