Oct 22, 2025

Growth Insight Series: Designing Engaging Holiday Events

Welcome back to the Growth Insights Series!

In our previous article, we explored the North American holiday schedule and how to plan in-game events around it. In this article, we’ll break down what makes a successful in-game holiday event, giving you a clear guide on how to design them. Our goal is to help you and your team plan holiday events that keep players engaged while creating opportunities for monetization and retention.

What goes into a holiday event?

A strong in-game holiday event brings together multiple elements that create a complete experience for players. These typically include:

Desirable, limited-time, thematically relevant durable goods (characters, skins, cosmetics)

Special gameplay modes, maps, or map overlays

In-game quests and daily login rewards

Currency, bundles, and sales offerings

Giveaways or rewards

When these elements come together, players get something new and rare to chase, something fun to do, and ways to make progress while earning rewards. Successful events also feature attractive sales on currency or goods, paired with free offerings that build positive associations. The amount of effort you invest should scale with the holiday’s importance — major events like Halloween or Christmas warrant more resources than smaller occasions such as back-to-school.

Why promote a holiday event?

Holiday events create value for both players and the game. For players, they deliver fresh content, themed experiences, and rewards. For developers, they open key opportunities for engagement and monetization. Holidays also give players more time to log in and often provide them with extra disposable income, increasing the likelihood of purchases. Beyond transactions, celebrating holidays together fosters a sense of generosity, fun, and community — qualities that can bring players back year after year.

Major holiday events like Christmas should feature quests for players to engage with, along with rewards to earn and purchase. During these periods, players often have more playtime and more discretionary income to spend.

Timing is everything

As we noted in our previous article, Planning Seasonal In-Game Events, timing is everything. There are moments to run events and moments to give players breaks. The most effective cadence builds anticipation, provides excitement, and then eases players back into the core game once the event ends. To manage this:

Use ramp-up mini-events to build excitement before the main event

Follow with ramp-down mini-events to ease players back into normal gameplay

Watch competitors’ timing and consider starting a bit earlier to get ahead

This approach helps build excitement without overwhelming players.

Planning major holiday events around Halloween (left) and Christmas (right) is common. Since they’re only two months apart, starting Halloween earlier and leaving November less crowded can help prevent fatigue.

Designing for holiday events

Holiday events are built from several recurring components. Each contributes differently to engagement and monetization, and together they create the complete seasonal experience. When designing them, consider both spenders and non-spenders — broad participation strengthens social density, which in turn drives activity and revenue.

Limited Time Earnable Content

A holiday event typically includes durable, collectible content available only for a short period. These can be simple items like Santa hats for Christmas, playful costumes for Halloween, or powerful holiday-themed character variants. Because scarcity drives demand, limiting availability creates urgency and encourages spend. To maximize impact, cosmetics should be visually appealing and supported by strong art direction. Most events split these rewards between free or easily earned options and harder-to-obtain or paid versions. When balanced properly, both tracks feel worthwhile, giving all players reasons to stay engaged.

Overwatch 2 allowed players to earn three new, high-quality holiday skins simply by playing a set amount of games during the event period – making it an excellent value proposition for many players.

Limited Time Quests

Holiday quests provide another path to rewards, often woven into the game’s core loop or introduced through limited-time modes. These quests work best when combined with daily login bonuses, as both increase reasons to return. They can also be designed to guide players toward systems or modes you want to spotlight. Offering both free and premium quest tracks allows for flexible progression while catering to different levels of player investment.

Limited-time quests can direct players towards modes or systems you want to highlight. In Disney Dreamlight Valley, “Duties” span routine tasks like outfit changes to more specific actions such as cooking certain dishes.

Limited Game Modes

Adding a holiday twist to gameplay through temporary modes keeps things fresh and exciting. These modes should complement, not replace, the core loop, and they can serve as a testing ground for new ideas. If a concept resonates, you may choose to integrate it permanently. Overwatch’s recurring “Mei’s Snowball Offensive” is a strong example of a mode that has become part of players’ seasonal expectations.

Mei’s Snowball Offensive in Overwatch 2 returns every winter holiday. It’s lighthearted, fun, and easy to market around the season.

Earned Economy Events

Many games introduce an event-specific currency that players earn by completing quests or activities. This currency can then be spent in a themed store on exclusive rewards. Some events also let players trade it for normal game currency, though this requires careful balance so players don’t disengage once the event ends. To ensure a fair challenge, playtest event plans and expect 30–50% additional engagement over normal patterns for most players to complete around 70–80% of event goals with a modest increase in playtime. This gives all players a reason to participate while leaving stretch goals for the most engaged.

In Disney Dreamlight Valley, players must purchase all rewards in one tier before unlocking the next. Paying for the Premium Track accelerates progression.

Themed Storefronts

A holiday-themed storefront is a must for seasonal events. It showcases the best items of the season through a temporary splash page or a dedicated holiday tab in your store. These overlays provide a seamless way to market holiday bundles and other limited-time goods directly to eager players.

Even holidays like Black Friday (less central than Halloween or Christmas) can justify themed storefront redesigns, as seen here in Azur Lane.

Holiday Currency Bundles

Holiday bundles usually combine a small infusion of premium currency with valuable extras. These should be limited to once per account or offered a small number of times to preserve balance during and after the event.

Giveaways

Holiday events almost always include some kind of giveaway. Many players come in expecting freebies, so it’s best to spread these out gradually over the event rather than all at once. While this is a great opportunity to be more generous than usual with your players, it’s important to keep your giveaways balanced so they don’t harm your game economy or reduce the perceived value of your currency.

Examples of holiday events

🎃 Halloween 🎃

Overview and player expectations

Halloween is a secular holiday with roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain and is very popular in American culture. Children celebrate by dressing in costumes and going door to door “trick or treating” for candy, while adults decorate their homes and host themed parties. The holiday is defined by three major aspects: costumes, a spooky atmosphere, and candy.

How these elements appear in games can vary widely. Costumes may be cutesy, sexy, horrific, or humorous. Spooky atmospheres might be as simple as a haunted house or as elaborate as a graveyard with zombies rising from the ground. Candy, often represented by iconic candy corn, chocolate bars, or candy apples, offers indulgence for players and can also serve as an effective event currency.

Because Halloween traditions are flexible, players expect a wide range of event styles. Limited-time goods like spooky skins or eerie furnishings, themed quests featuring ghosts, witches, or zombies, and lobby decorations filled with bats and pumpkins all reinforce the holiday spirit. Candy, in particular, makes a great currency for the Earned Economy Events for Halloween.

Overwatch 2’s Halloween event opened its trailer with a heavy feature of a new Mythic Skin (premium-exclusive cosmetic), before any gameplay modes or new content was shown. This demonstrates how important durable goods like cosmetics are to Halloween events.

Theming and Event Considerations

Black and orange are the classic colors of Halloween in the United States, while purple and orange are commonly used in Japan. Adding greens and browns allows developers to shift the tone from playful to terrifying. Popular theming draws on supernatural staples like skeletons, mummies, witches, bats, ghosts, vampires, zombies, and werewolves. More advanced theming can take inspiration from horror films, referencing icons like Jason Voorhees or Chucky to deepen the atmosphere.

Two seasonal characters added to Granblue Fantasy’s limited gacha show the range of possible costumes. Hallessena (left) recalls elements of Jason Vorhees, while Satyr (right) is dressed as a traditional Chinese ghost (Jiangshi). This also shows the international appeal of Halloween.

For event design, lean into the cute, spooky, and fantastical. Trick-or-treating, costume or decoration contests, and ghost-hunting quests give players variety, while battles against zombies, ghosts, and skeletons reinforce the theme. The core focus for Halloween should remain on eye-catching skins and other durable goods, since the season is lucrative for both players and developers. Layer in rewards and giveaways to further encourage participation and goodwill.

Content and Bundle Offering Suggestions

Content offerings will differ by genre. Avatar-focused games should emphasize skins and accessories that players can show off. Costumes that are cute or scary can be enhanced with visual accents like glowing effects or lighting. Weapon skins and charms can extend the theming, from witches’ brooms to bone overlays. In games that emphasize player-owned spaces, furnishings such as coffins or cauldrons allow players to decorate those spaces for the season.

It is also highly recommended to include a limited-time currency bundle. These often pair discounted premium currency with a small cosmetic, such as a weapon charm or simple ghost costume. Halloween-themed emotes (like a zombie pose or jump scare), banners, and themed gacha bundles give players additional ways to engage.

Disney Dreamlight Valley’s Halloween event highlights both free and premium-exclusive durable goods. Skins for Donald Duck (free) and Stitch (premium) are shown, alongside a premium furnishing (far right) and two premium character outfits (center).

🎄Christmas 🎄

Overview and Player Expectations

For many in America, Christmas is a secular holiday marked by decorated trees, lights, garland, stockings, and Santa-themed items. Red, green, and white unify the many ways people celebrate. The holiday centers on giving and exchanging gifts, and theming often includes wrapped presents, Santa Claus, candy canes, and Christmas trees. Snow, whether through snowball fights or cozy winter backdrops, is also a strong seasonal cue. Players also expect generosity in giveaways, reflecting the spirit of the season.

Fortnite’s most recent Christmas event featured many expected trappings, like red and white Santa suits, but also leaned into modern memes — most memorably with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” literally crashing down on Halloween to propel the game into Christmas.

Theming and Event Considerations

In contrast to Halloween, Christmas theming emphasizes coziness, cheer, and generosity. Red and green dominate, set against snowy white. Lighting plays a central role, with Christmas lights being a hallmark of the season. Events should focus on gifts and joy—players might deliver presents, discover hidden ones, or take part in festive quests.

Durable goods should roll out at least two weeks before December 25 in order to give players time to earn them. Many players have more free time after Christmas, and some will also have more disposable income from holiday gifts, making this an important monetization window.

Two limited-time Christmas characters in Fire Emblem: Heroes show the range of possible designs. Chrom (left) wears a traditional Santa-inspired outfit, while Dorothea (right) demonstrates how a more glamorous design can still stay within the bounds of the holiday theme.

Content and Bundle Offering Suggestions

Santa outfits are the most popular durable goods for the season, with players expecting hats, coats, and jackets trimmed in white. Other cosmetic options include snowmen, reindeer, and nutcrackers. Bundles and giveaways are especially effective, as players are primed to spend.

A trend that is becoming more popular is allowing players to buy previously rare and exclusive skins in a randomized style as part of an expensive bundle. Bundles should be impulse-buy friendly and should help set players up for the rest of the new year within the game. Be sure to make these bundles available for purchase only once so as not to upset the balance of the game’s economy.

Street Fighter V pairs holiday skins with a special Christmas-themed stage, showing how fighting games can use both characters and environments to capture the season.

What’s next?

Now that you have a clearer picture of what goes into a holiday event (and have seen examples of how to plan around major moments like Christmas and Halloween) you’re better equipped to design seasonal content that resonates with players and delivers results.

Our next article in this series will focus on the basics of economy design, outlining the systems and structures that keep events, and your game, sustainable year-round. By mastering these fundamentals, you can ensure holiday events excite players in the moment while supporting long-term engagement and growth.

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