If you sunk hundreds of hours into the original Overwatch, grinding loot boxes, buying limited-event skins, and grabbing exclusive charity cosmetics, you almost certainly asked one question before logging into Overwatch 2 for the first time: do Overwatch skins transfer to Overwatch 2. For many long-time players, their skin collections represent years of playtime and real money spent, so the thought of losing access to rare items like Blackwatch Reyes, Oni Genji, or Pink Mercy was enough to make them skip the new game entirely. I’ve been playing Overwatch since the 2016 closed beta, so I went through the exact same panic when the sequel was first announced, and I’ve walked dozens of friends through the transfer process since launch. This guide breaks down every rule, exception, and fix you need to know to get all your old skins into your Overwatch 2 account.
How Do Overwatch Skins Transfer to Overwatch 2?
The short answer for most players is yes, all your eligible original Overwatch skins will carry over to Overwatch 2 for free, no extra purchases required. The process works through Blizzard’s cross-progression and account merge system, which rolled out a few months before Overwatch 2 launched to let players combine all their progress across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch into one central account. Cross-progression is enabled for all linked accounts, so you can access your transferred skins on any platform you play on with the same Battle.net login. To complete the merge, you just need to log into each of your console accounts, link them to your main Battle.net account, and confirm the merge request when you first launch Overwatch 2. If you skipped the merge step when you first launched the game, you can still trigger it now by going to the “Account Merge” section in your Overwatch 2 in-game settings, or by logging into your Battle.net account on the web and adding your missing console accounts to your profile. Most accounts finish syncing within a few hours, but if you have a large collection of thousands of cosmetics, it can take up to 72 hours for all items to show up in your inventory.
What Skins and Cosmetics Don’t Transfer to Overwatch 2?
While the vast majority of original Overwatch items do transfer, there are a small handful of exceptions that are important to be aware of before you start panicking about missing skins. Most of these exceptions are rare, but they impact a small subset of players who have specific account setups or limited items:
- Original Overwatch League tokens purchased before 2022 that were not redeemed for skins prior to the Overwatch 2 launch will not carry over, as Blizzard switched to a new League token system for the sequel
- Platform-exclusive skins tied to accounts you no longer have access to, such as an old PSN account you forgot the password for or a banned Xbox account, cannot be transferred to your new main account
- Cosmetics from the original Overwatch closed beta that were never released to the general public, including the early test version of the Tracer default skin, will not show up in Overwatch 2 inventories
- Paid loot boxes you purchased but did not open before the Overwatch 2 launch will not transfer, and their contents will not be added to your inventory automatically
It’s worth noting that most of the rare skins players ask about do qualify for transfer, as long as they are on a linked eligible account. Pink Mercy, the 2018 charity skin that raised over $12 million for breast cancer research, is fully eligible for transfer, and will never be re-released in the Overwatch 2 item shop, making it one of the most valuable transferred skins in the game. If you have Pink Mercy on your original account, you’ll never lose access to it as long as you keep your Battle.net account in good standing. Banned original Overwatch accounts are the only other common exception: any skins or progress on a banned account cannot be transferred to a new account, even if you owned the items legitimately.
Fixes for When Your Overwatch Skins Don’t Show Up in Overwatch 2
Even if you followed all the account merge steps correctly, it’s not uncommon for some skins to go missing temporarily, or for the full collection to take longer to sync than expected. I’ve helped at least 10 friends fix this exact issue over the past two years, and 90% of the time, the fix is simple and takes less than 5 minutes. The first thing you should do is double check that you’re logged into the correct Battle.net account. It’s surprisingly common for players to have multiple old Battle.net accounts, especially if they played the original Overwatch on PC before switching to console, and logging into the wrong one will mean none of your old skins show up. Next, go to your Battle.net account settings online and confirm that all your old console accounts are linked to your main profile. I had a friend who spent a week panicking that he lost his entire original skin collection, only to realize he linked his new Switch account instead of the old one he used to play Overwatch 1. If your skins are still missing after 72 hours, you can submit a support ticket to Blizzard with proof of purchase for any paid skins you can’t access, and the support team will usually add them to your account within 3 business days. You should also check your in-game inventory filter settings: sometimes the “Only View Owned” filter is toggled off by default after updates, which makes it look like you don’t have any skins when they’re just mixed in with all the unowned items in the shop.
Can You Earn Original Overwatch Skins in Overwatch 2 Now?
If you’re new to Overwatch and never played the original game, you might be wondering if you can still get all the classic original Overwatch skins without having owned the first game. The good news is that almost all non-limited original Overwatch skins are still available to earn or purchase in Overwatch 2, no transfer required. Most common, rare, epic, and legendary original skins can be purchased with legacy credits, a currency that long-time players earned from original Overwatch loot boxes, but that new players can also earn through free battle pass tiers and seasonal event challenges. Legacy credits can only be used to purchase original Overwatch cosmetics, so you don’t have to worry about wasting them on new Overwatch 2 skins if you’re only chasing classic items. Limited-time event skins from the original game, like the Halloween Terror or Summer Games skins, usually come back to the item shop during the same event each year, so you can grab them for either Overwatch coins or legacy credits when they’re available. Some original event skins are even available for free during seasonal challenges, so you don’t have to spend real money to unlock them. The only original skins you’ll never be able to get if you didn’t own them in the first game are exclusive charity skins like Pink Mercy, and promotional skins tied to external partnerships that have expired, like the Noire Widowmaker skin that came with pre-orders of the original Overwatch.
At the end of the day, the answer to do Overwatch skins transfer to Overwatch 2 is almost always yes, as long as you have access to your original accounts and follow the official account merge steps. Blizzard made a point to honor the time and money long-time fans spent on the original game, which is a rare move in an era where most sequels force players to repurchase all their old cosmetics. If you’re coming back to Overwatch 2 after a long break, take 10 minutes to double check your linked accounts and inventory before you spend money on a skin you might already own from the original game. For new players, don’t stress too much about missing out on most classic skins: almost all of them rotate through the item shop regularly, so you can build a great collection without having played the 2016 original.