Halloween 2026 Events in Games: Official Dates for 14 Games

Dates below come from each studio's own announcements, checked September 25, 2026. Updated October 5, 2026: Team Fortress 2's Scream Fortress is live and Rust's Halloween update is dated. Updated October 25, 2026: Overwatch, Apex Legends and Marvel Rivals events are live, with dates from each studio.

Updated November 1, 2026: Halloween is wrapping up. For December, see our games with Christmas events 2026 list. Fallout 76's Holiday Scorched is dated for December 15 to 29, and Rust, Fortnite Winterfest, TF2 Smissmas and 15 more games are on that list, most with last year's dates for reference until their studios announce 2026.

Each studio announces its Halloween plans on its own schedule, and much of what circulates in September is leaks. I checked the official news pages, patch notes and social accounts for the 14 games PropBuilds covers. As of September 25, five of them have put a 2026 Halloween event on the record: Call of Duty, Fortnite, Fallout 76, Pokémon GO and Escape from Tarkov. For the other nine, I list last year's official dates as history only. A past date is not a promise for this year.

Quick table

Times are listed only where the studio gave one. Rows marked "Not announced yet" show 2025 dates for reference.

Announced for 2026

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Warzone: The Haunting

Status: live now. Season 06, The Haunting, is this year's Halloween season. Activision's Call of Duty blog set the launch for September 17 at 9 AM PT across all platforms, and the Season 06 patch notes are already up. No end date has been published. Activision's May announcement says Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23, "with Season 1 shortly after."

• Haunted Hollow: Warzone's small-town Resurgence map, Haven's Hollow, gets a haunted makeover with cosmic horrors and a Ghost Train.
• Giant Infected: a 64-player limited-time mode that runs only on Haunted Hollow, Survivors against Infected.
• A DOOM Event Pass whose rewards include the Doom Slayer operator.

Sources: Call of Duty blog, Season 06: The Haunting (Sep 8, 2026); Season 06 patch notes; Call of Duty blog, Modern Warfare 4 announcement (May 28, 2026)

Fortnite: Fortnitemares 2026

Status: announced, starts October 1. On September 23, the official Fortnite account on X posted "Nitemares really do come true" with the date 10.1. The attached image shows the Fortnitemares logo and the line "The Game Is Cursed." Epic has not given an end date, a start time or a content list. Collab names going around online come from leaks and reports, not from Epic, so I have left them out.

Source: Fortnite on X (Sep 23, 2026)

Fallout 76: Mischief Night and Spooky Scorched

Status: announced. Bethesda's September 15 post for The Slasher update includes the Season 26 community calendar. Its October row is titled "Time for Spooky Season!" and lists:

• Mischief Night: October 6 to October 20
• Spooky Scorched: October 20 to November 3
• Slasher C.A.M.P. Contest: October 2 to October 26

The calendar gives dates but no times. The horror theme is already running: The Slasher update went live September 15 with "an all-new series of eerie & exciting emergency broadcasts airing in parts over multiple weeks." Season 26, Beware the Blood Moon, launched with it, and its rewards include the Blood Moon Weather Control Station, Creepy Cultist Well and Batty Skirt.

Source: Bethesda, Fallout 76's The Slasher Update Is Available Now (Sep 15, 2026)

Pokémon GO: Halloween 2026 Part I and Part II

Status: dates announced, details not yet. The official Pokémon GO account posted its October calendar on September 17. It lists Halloween 2026 Part I from October 27 to October 31 and Part II from November 1 to November 5. Start times, featured Pokémon, costumes and bonuses are not announced yet, and there is no event post on the official news page.

Source: Pokémon GO on X, October 2026 calendar (Sep 17, 2026)

Escape from Tarkov: Halloween event

Status: planned for October, no date. On August 27, the official Escape from Tarkov account on X posted a "Preliminary plan for #EscapefromTarkov updates through the end of 2026." The graphic lists a Halloween event under Patch 1.3.5.0 in October. Battlestate calls the whole plan preliminary and has not given a start date or said what the event includes. The same graphic notes that the game "will feature various in-game events between the updates listed in the roadmap."

Source: Escape from Tarkov on X, update plan through 2026 (Aug 27, 2026)

Team Fortress 2: Scream Fortress XVIII

Status: live now, October 1 to November 7. Valve's October 1 update notes open with "Scream Fortress XVIII has arrived!" and say the event "runs through November 7th, 2026." It adds five community maps (HolyHell, Scarypass, Trainsawlaser, Medi-Evil and Scaredy-Cat), the Haunted Hoard Case, and resets every Halloween contract. Maps, contracts, the Soul Gargoyle and a costume piece for every class are in our TF2 Scream Fortress 2026 guide.

Source: Team Fortress 2 update notes (Oct 1, 2026)

Rust: Halloween update

Status: announced for October 22. Facepunch's Livestock update post says: "On October 22nd at 18:00BST / 13:00 EST, we'll release a mandatory server and client update to enable some spooky features!" It is not a wipe; the next force wipe is November 5 (see the Rust wipe countdown). Last year's Halloween update landed on October 23, 2025.

Source: Facepunch, Livestock update post (Oct 1, 2026)

Overwatch: Mystery Madness: Graveyard Games

Status: live now, October 6 to November 2. Blizzard's Season 5 post (A Grim Doctrine) opens "It's Halloween, Heroes" and introduces Mystery Madness: Graveyard Games, a limited-time mode where you enter as a random Hero and come back from every death with random new powers. Blizzard calls the mode "but one part of these haunted Halloween festivities," with a new Event Pass each week. The Tech Witches cosmetic collection runs October 9 to 26.

Last year: Blizzard's Season 19 post featured Junkenstein's Revenge, Wrath of the Bride and a Haunted Masquerade mode, from October 14 to November 3, 2025.

Sources: Overwatch news, Season 5: A Grim Doctrine (Oct 2026); Overwatch news, Season 19 (Oct 9, 2025)

Apex Legends: Blood Pact

Status: live now, October 13 to November 3. EA's October 8 post says "The Blood Pact Event runs from October 13 to November 3." Players pledge to the Beasts or the Demons in Wildcard mode and earn faction Wild Cards from per-round challenges, on a spooky Kings Canyon with random fog, haunted buildings and loot bins, and pumpkin-styled EVO orbs.

Last year: the Raise Hell event gave Wildcard mode a Halloween takeover from October 14 to November 4, 2025.

Sources: EA, Fight for Beasts or Demons in the Blood Pact Event (Oct 8, 2026); EA, Raise Hell Event (Oct 9, 2025)

Marvel Rivals: All Hallows' Glow

Status: live now, October 15, 09:00 UTC to November 13, 09:00 UTC. The Version 20261015 patch notes announce All Hallows' Glow, with Rocket Raccoon's Trash King costume free for completing event missions, and Scarlet Witch's Chaos Weaver and Hela's The Redeemed among the premium rewards. A Halloween Pop & Win with three costumes (Invisible Woman's Unseen Weaver, Deadpool's Nurse-Pool and Mister Fantastic's Mr. Malignance) runs October 16 to November 13, 02:00 UTC.

Last year: the Marvel Zombies PvE mode ran from October 23 to November 14, 2025.

Buying for a Marvel Rivals player? Our gifts for Marvel fans guide includes Marvel Rivals figures.

Sources: Marvel Rivals Version 20261015 patch notes; Marvel Rivals Version 20251023 patch notes

Not announced yet

These are sorted by when last year's event started. The 2025 dates are history, not a forecast.

Destiny 2: Festival of the Lost

Status: not announced yet. Bungie's support guide says that after Update 9.7.0 on June 9, 2026, "Destiny 2 will no longer receive planned live-service content updates." In a September 17 post, Bungie said it is "beginning the work of bringing vaulted Destiny 2 campaigns, destinations, and raids back into the game" and will share more "in the coming months." The post does not mention seasonal events. Whether Festival of the Lost returns this year is not announced yet.

Last year: Bungie wrote that Festival of the Lost "returns starting October 21" (2025) and would "last for two whole weeks."

Sources: Bungie Help, Update 9.7.0 support guide; Bungie, The Next Chapter for Bungie (Sep 17, 2026); Bungie, This Week In Destiny (Oct 16, 2025)

Minecraft

Status: not announced yet. Minecraft.net has no Halloween 2026 article yet.

Last year: a Halloween Costume Sale ran in the Bedrock Edition Dressing Room "from 10am PT on October 21 to 10am PT on November 1, 2025," with 99 character creator items at 33% off and a free Jack O' Lantern item.

Source: Minecraft.net, Halloween Costume Sale 2025

Helldivers 2

Status: not announced yet. Arrowhead's latest posts cover patch 7.1.1 (September 24) and a look back at the Devoid of Liberty launch (September 25). Neither mentions Halloween. I also found no Halloween event in Arrowhead's Steam announcements from October 2024 or October 2025, so there are no past dates to list.

Source: Helldivers 2 news on Steam

Arc Raiders

Status: not announced yet. Embark's next dated update is Frozen Trail on October 8, and its preview does not mention Halloween. Neither does Embark's September 24 post about a PvE matchmaking test running October 13 to 20. Arc Raiders launched on October 30, 2025, so there is no earlier Halloween event to go by.

Sources: Arc Raiders, Frozen Trail First Look (Sep 23, 2026); Arc Raiders, PvE toggle test (Sep 24, 2026);Arc Raiders, launch day post (Oct 30, 2025)

Halloween from the PropBuilds side

If one of these events has you thinking about a costume, my guide to wearable video game helmets and masks covers pieces you can buy or print. For props, game props in real life sorts replicas by game. There are also dedicated pages for Fortnite replica props, Helldivers 2 replicas and TF2 weapons in real life. If you want the season and wipe clocks for these games in one place, see game countdowns.

Gift guides for the games on this list: Fortnite, Fallout, Pokémon, Minecraft, Helldivers 2, Rust and Marvel (for Marvel Rivals players).

Shopping for a gamer rather than dressing up? The gift finder sorts gift ideas by game, with every pick linked to the store that sells it.

When the Halloween events end, the Christmas 2026 game events list picks up with winter event dates and a gift list by game.