Overwatch 2 players claim Junkrat’s birthday messes up game’s entire lore timeline

Jeremy Gan
Junkrat in Overwatch 2

Overwatch 2 players are claiming Junkrat’s canonized birthday messes up the game’s entire lore timeline as his leap-year day of birth causes inconsistencies. 

On September 8 Overwatch 2 devs decided to reveal something fun, the official birthdays and ages of all its heroes. This comes after seven years of speculation from the community, however, it has caused a lot of discussions around its apparent inconsistencies. 

Such as Kiriko’s age not making a great deal of sense when lined up with Hanzo and Genji’s ages and story, or the fact Overwatch may have had Mercy fighting at the age of 14, quite literally a child medic.

Once again, another major inconsistency has now been pointed out by players as Junkrat’s birthday seems to mess up the game’s lore timeline. 

Junkrat, being the quirky fella he is, was born on February 29, which happens to be a leap year day, officially aged 27 years old. However, this seemingly messes up what we currently know of the game’s timeline. 

As pointed out by a player in the Overwatch subreddit, Junkrat’s birthday does not line up with what many have highlighted as the current year in the game’s lore.

Currently, the theorized lore year is that Overwatch 2 now takes place in 2077, which wouldn’t cause any problems birthday-wise. Except 2050, the year Junkrat was supposedly born, is not a leap year, making it therefore impossible to have been born on February 29. 

Other players have also theorized the current lore year could be either 2088 or 2066, however, even then it is impossible that Junkrat could have been born on Feb 29 as neither lines up leap year-wise. 

“I cannot think of any other years Overwatch 2 could take place in. Were these birthdays meant to be taken with a ‘grain of salt?’ or does this mean something else?” the player questioned after pointing out the possible mistake.

A few others in the comments pointed out that Junkrat could’ve just not known his birthday and just picked an off-kilter date, which probably makes the most sense as is fitting of his personality.

About The Author

Jeremy is a writer on the Australian Dexerto team. He studied at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, and graduated with a Bachelors in Journalism. Jeremy mainly covers esports such as CS:GO, Valorant, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Dota 2, but he also leans into gaming and entertainment news as well. You can contact Jeremy at jeremy.gan@dexerto.com or on Twitter @Jer_Gan