The Winter Celebration 2024 is the first winter event for Marvel Rivals. It introduces a slew of new skins and a new game mode called Jeff’s Winter Splash Festival, which, as you can likely tell from the name, focuses on a certain controversial land shark named Jeff.
In this Marvel Rivals guide, we’ll break down when the Winter Celebration event releases in your time zone and what you can expect from it.
Marvel Rivals’ Winter Celebration event release time on PC, PS5, and Xbox
Marvel Rivals’ Winter Celebration event will launch at 2 a.m. EST on Friday, Dec. 20, according to the official Marvel Rivals YouTube channel. Here’s when that is in your time zone:
- 11 p.m. PST on Thursday, Dec. 19 for the West Coast of North America
- 2 a.m. EST on Dec. 20 for the East Coast of North America
- 7 a.m. GMT on Dec. 20 for the U.K.
- 8 a.m. CET on Dec. 20 for Western Europe/Paris
- 4 p.m. JST on Dec. 20 for Tokyo
The launch will be global across PC, PS5, and Xbox. NetEase Games has yet to reveal how long the event will run for.
What to expect from the Marvel Rivals Winter Celebration event
The Winter Celebration in Marvel Rivals is the first winter event for the game, and it adds five new winter-themed skins, as well as a new game mode called Jeff’s Winter Splash Festival.
Jeff’s Winter Splash Festival appears to be a riff on Nintendo’s Splatoon series of multiplayer shooters. The trailer shows a team full of only Jeff the Land Sharks running around and using attacks to paint the map blue or pink. (There’s a meter at the top of the screen showing which team has covered more surface area.) We also see one Jeff use the It’s Jeff ultimate to paint an area and grab opposing Jeffs, only for another Jeff to come up and ult that Jeff and all the Jeffs inside it — like a chaotic little Jeff-only matryoshka doll.
As far as who is getting skins for this inaugural Winter Celebration, there are five characters and three themes:
- Groot, with a Christmas tree look
- Jeff the Land Shark, with a snowboarder look
- Magik, with a snowboarder look
- Rocket Raccoon, with a snowboarder look
- Venom, with an abominable snowman look
The trailer for the event specifically calls out that Jeff the Land Shark’s Winter Celebration costume is free this year, along with some other “gifts from Jeff.” This suggests that the other four skins will likely only be purchasable with Units.
As far as what kinds of missions you’ll need to complete in order to unlock the Jeff skin and other winter goodies, we’ll need to wait until the event’s official launch.
For more Marvel Rivals guides, here’s a list of all known codes, all Team-Up abilities, all maps and modes, and a look at the game’s roadmap.