Search "genshin anniversary 2026 rewards" today and you will get a dozen pages confidently listing 1,600 Primogems, 10 Intertwined Fates and a free 5-star. Those numbers are not invented — they describe a real, well-documented five-year pattern. But HoYoverse has not announced a single 2026 anniversary reward, and almost nobody says so plainly. We checked the official news feed and the in-game notice board on 9 September 2026: there is no anniversary item on either.
The useful question is not "what are the rewards" — nobody knows yet. It is when the announcement lands, and there is a rule that has held every year since 2022 that answers it.
Quick answer: The Genshin Impact 6th anniversary falls on 28 September 2026. No 2026 rewards have been announced. Based on 2021–2025, expect 1,600 Primogems as four 400-Primogem in-game mails plus 10 Intertwined Fates from a separate login event, and — going on the last two years only — a free selectable standard 5-star. The reveal should land in the Version 7.1 Special Program on 12 September 2026, 08:00 (UTC-4), because 7.1 is almost certainly the version that will be live on 28 September. Treat everything except the date itself as unconfirmed.
Article status: verified 9 September 2026 by reading every live entry on the in-game notice board directly, plus the official Genshin Impact news feed, HoYoLAB announcement posts for each past anniversary, and the official A Quest to Kindle Ancient Flames announcement. Every historical reward figure below was checked year by year rather than assumed from the pattern. No leaked or datamined information is used anywhere in this article.
When is the Genshin Impact 6th anniversary?
28 September 2026. Genshin Impact launched globally on 28 September 2020, and HoYoverse has anchored every anniversary to that date rather than to a patch number.
That is the only fully confirmed fact in this topic right now. The date is fixed; nothing attached to it is.
One thing that trips people up every year: the anniversary is not a patch. It is a set of gifts and events layered on top of whatever version happens to be running. Which version that is turns out to decide the whole timeline.
Has HoYoverse announced the Genshin anniversary 2026 rewards?
No. As of 9 September 2026:
- There is no anniversary announcement on the in-game notice board.
- There is no anniversary article on the official news feed.
- The Version 7.0 Special Program aired on 31 July 2026 and contained no anniversary reveal.
- The Version 7.1 Special Program preview, published 7 September 2026, does not mention the anniversary at all.
Here is that preview quoted directly, because the exact wording is what everyone is over-reading:
"The special program for Genshin Impact's new version will premiere on the official Twitch and YouTube channels on 09/12/2026 at 08:00 AM (UTC-4)! This special program will feature juicy details about new game content and developments in Version 7.1. It will also 'drop' some redemption codes and other goodies!"
— HoYoverse, official Version 7.1 Special Program Preview, 7 September 2026
"Other goodies" is doing a great deal of work in the headlines you have been reading. It is not an anniversary confirmation. The announcement gives no reward list, no code count and no dates.
When will the 2026 anniversary rewards be revealed?
Most coverage frames this as "the September x.1 livestream always reveals the anniversary." That is not the rule, and it has already failed twice — in 2024 and 2025 the reveal came weeks earlier, in the x.0 program.
The rule that actually holds is simpler: the anniversary package is revealed in the Special Program for whichever version will be live on 28 September.
| Year | Version live on 28 Sept | Special Program that revealed it | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 (1st) | 2.1 | No Special Program reveal — and no official announcement at all | n/a |
| 2022 (2nd) | 3.1 | Version 3.1 Special Program | 16 Sept 2022 |
| 2023 (3rd) | 4.1 | Version 4.1 Special Program | 15 Sept 2023 |
| 2024 (4th) | 5.0 | Version 5.0 Special Program | 16 Aug 2024 |
| 2025 (5th) | 6.0 "Luna I" | Version "Luna I" Special Program | 29 Aug 2025 |
| 2026 (6th) | 7.1, not 7.0 | Version 7.1 Special Program (expected) | 12 Sept 2026 |
In 2024 and 2025 the reveal came four to six weeks early because Version 5.0 (launched 28 August 2024) and Version 6.0 "Luna I" (launched 10 September 2025) were both still running on 28 September. The anniversary rewards shipped with those patches. Note that 2021 sets no precedent either way: the first-anniversary Primogem mails went out with no official announcement whatsoever, so there was nothing to reveal on a stream.
2026 goes back to the 2022–2023 shape. Version 7.0 "Everwinter Without Mercy" launched on 12 August 2026, and its Phase II Event Wishes end on 22 September 2026 at 14:59 server time — first-party information from the in-game wish notice.
HoYoverse has not formally announced a Version 7.1 release date, but it has effectively dated it anyway: the three version-level in-game notices for 7.0 (the update details, the Snezhnaya announcement and the version summary) all carry an expiry timestamp that resolves to a single global instant — 22 September 2026 at 22:00 UTC, which is 23 September 06:00 on the Asia server. That is when 7.0 content stops and update maintenance begins. We walk through that derivation in full in our Genshin 7.1 release date breakdown. Either way, Version 7.1 is the version that will be live on the 28 September anniversary.
So the 7.1 Special Program on 12 September is the natural reveal slot, and the silence so far is exactly what you would expect. If you have seen people worrying that HoYoverse "forgot" this year, that worry comes from comparing 2026 against 2024 and 2025 — the two years where the calendar happened to line up differently.
What the last five anniversaries actually gave
The record here is unusually well documented, and it is more stable than most people assume in one respect and much less stable in another.
| Anniversary | Primogems by mail | Intertwined Fates login event | Free 5-star selector |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 (1st) | 1,600 (4 × 400) | "Passage of Clouds and Stars" — 10 | No |
| 2022 (2nd) | 1,600 (4 × 400) | "Path of Gleaming Jade" — 10 | No |
| 2023 (3rd) | 1,600 (4 × 400) | "Bathing in Flowing Moonlight" — 10 | No |
| 2024 (4th) | 1,600 (4 × 400) | "Brilliant Dawn" — 10 (ran 30 Aug – 18 Sept, before the date) | Yes — first time ever |
| 2025 (5th) | 1,600 (4 × 400) | "Rainbow's End: Silvery Flux" — 10 | Yes |
The core package has not changed in five years: 1,600 Primogems plus 10 Intertwined Fates, every single year. Anyone telling you that is "last year's number" is wrong — it is a five-year constant, and it is the most reliable thing you can plan around.
One honest caveat on the 2021 row: those four mails went out from 30 September to 3 October 2021, they had no official announcement, and their in-game text promotes the GENSHIN CONCERT 2021 rather than using the word "anniversary" at all. The numbers are well attested from the mails themselves, but 2021 was not a formally announced anniversary package the way 2022 onward were.
The Primogems arrive as four separate 400-Primogem in-game mails — 2021's were literally titled "Thank You to All Our Travelers (1/4)" through "(4/4)", and 2023's was "Treasures Along the Road: A Thank-You Gift". They require you to log in across four different days, which is why some sites call it a mail and others call it a login event. Both describe the same thing, and you will lose the tail of it if you log in once on the 28th and then stop.
The one genuine break is the free 5-star selector. It did not exist for the first three anniversaries. It appeared in 2024 and repeated in 2025 — a two-year precedent, not a tradition. That is the single element most at risk of not returning, and the one every "confirmed 2026 rewards" article is least entitled to promise.
The free 5-star selector: read the fine print
In 2024 HoYoverse ran "A Quest to Kindle Ancient Flames" (28 August – 8 October 2024), which let players choose one free standard-banner 5-star from Diluc, Jean, Keqing, Mona, Qiqi, Tighnari and Dehya. Eligibility was simply "after unlocking the Wish feature" — every player, not just newcomers. 2025 repeated the format under "Uncover Lunar Realms, Hone the Eventide Radiance" (10 September – 21 October 2025), with the pool expanded to eight by adding Yumemizuki Mizuki.
A live detail almost nobody is reporting: that 2025 event has a second, still-running iteration. Checking the in-game notice board on 9 September 2026, "Uncover Lunar Realms, Hone the Eventide Radiance" is currently active until 23 September 2026, 05:59 — but this run is restricted to Travelers who registered after the Version "Luna II" update, and it is available for 42 days from registration. So a genuinely new account can still claim a free standard 5-star right now. An existing account cannot; the all-player run ended in October 2025.
Two details that matter for planning:
It is attached to the version, not to 28 September. The 2024 selector opened on 28 August, the day Version 5.0 launched — a full month before the anniversary. If HoYoverse repeats it in 2026, expect it to open with the Version 7.1 update rather than on the anniversary date itself.
It is a standard-banner 5-star, not a limited one. You are choosing from the permanent pool, so it will not be a current limited-banner character like Flins or Ineffa. It is also not the free 4-star selector people remember — that one belongs to Lantern Rite in January–February, and has never been an anniversary reward.
Do not expect everything on 28 September
The most common misconception in this week's returning-player threads is that all anniversary rewards land in one lump on the anniversary date. They do not, and they never have.
The Primogem mail starts on or around 28 September. The Intertwined Fates login event routinely runs after it: "Path of Gleaming Jade" ran 14–31 October 2022, "Bathing in Flowing Moonlight" ran 29 September – 16 October 2023, and the "Silvery Flux" daily login ran 1–21 October 2025. In all three cases the free pulls arrived after the anniversary date.
2024 is the exception that proves you should not assume a fixed slot at all: "Brilliant Dawn" ran 30 August – 18 September 2024 and was finished ten days before the anniversary. The 10 Fates were part of the announced package either way — they simply did not arrive in the window everyone expected.
Practical consequence: if you open your mailbox on 28 September 2026 and only see Primogems, nothing is broken. Keep checking the Events tab through mid-to-late October before assuming you missed something.
Anniversary codes: what is actually live
Special Programs are a reliable source of free redemption codes, and the 7.1 preview explicitly promises them for 12 September. Be careful what you redeem today, though — this space is full of recycled dead codes.
Checked 9 September 2026:
- GENSHINGIFT — permanent, one-time per account. Unusually, it works from Adventure Rank 1, so it is the one code a brand-new or returning account can always use.
- MySnezhnayaCareer — probably dead. One dated source reported a 6 September 2026 deadline and HoYoverse never published one. Several high-ranking pages still list it as active. Try it once; do not count on it.
- All Version 7.0 livestream codes — expired. HoYoverse published them alongside the 31 July 2026 stream recap and the window ran roughly 62 hours, not 24.
That last number matters, because "livestream codes last 24 hours" is repeated everywhere and is simply not a rule. HoYoverse states an explicit deadline with each set, and it has run past 48 hours before. The safe play is to redeem during or immediately after the broadcast rather than trusting a timer nobody published.
Redemption normally requires Adventure Rank 10, a created character and a linked HoYoverse account, with GENSHINGIFT and Prime Gaming codes as the documented low-AR exceptions. Rewards arrive by in-game mail and that mail expires after 30 days. Copy codes carefully — a trailing space is enough to make a valid code fail.
Coming back for the anniversary? Do it now, not later
A genuinely common question this week is whether returning players should wait for the anniversary patch. The answer from experienced players is consistently no, and the mechanics back them up.
Genshin's returning-player track, Stellar Reunion, appears in the Events tab if you meet three conditions: Adventure Rank 10 or above, at least 14 days since your last login, and more than 45 days since you last activated it. It runs for 14 days from activation and unclaimed rewards are lost at the end — so "saving it" for the anniversary gains you nothing. There is a richer tier, Reunion Gifts, gated behind Adventure Rank 30, 45 days of inactivity and 60 days since the last activation.
Returning now means you clear the returnee track, catch the running 7.0 events, and arrive at the anniversary with a current account — instead of trying to do all of it inside a fortnight.
What to do before 28 September
- Watch the 7.1 Special Program on 12 September, 08:00 (UTC-4) on the official Twitch or YouTube channel. Redemption codes drop live, and the reward reveal is most likely here.
- Do not spend down to zero on the current banners. Version 7.0 Phase II Event Wishes end 22 September 2026 at 14:59 server time — check the in-game countdown, since the notice carries no universal timezone.
- Log in on four separate days once the anniversary mail starts. The 1,600 Primogems are not a single delivery.
- Keep checking the Events tab into late October. In three of the last five years — 2022, 2023 and 2025 — the free-pull login event started after 28 September, and in four of five it ran into October.
- Ignore any 2026 reward list dated before 12 September. Nothing has been announced. Every specific 2026 figure currently in circulation is extrapolated from previous years.
More Genshin Impact guides
- Genshin 7.1 Livestream Codes: Date, Time & Live Redeem Tracker — our live tracker for the 12 September stream codes
- Genshin 7.1 Release Date — the maintenance instant derived from HoYoverse's own in-game notice timestamps
- Genshin Impact Codes September 2026: Active, Expired & Rewards — the full active and expired code list, kept current
- Genshin Banner Schedule September 2026 — current 7.0 banners, exact end times and what comes next
- Flins Build Genshin Impact 7.0: Best Artifacts, Weapons & Teams — get the current patch's headline 5-star working before the anniversary
FAQ
When is the Genshin Impact anniversary in 2026? 28 September 2026. Genshin Impact launched globally on 28 September 2020, making 2026 the sixth anniversary. HoYoverse ties the celebration to that calendar date rather than to a version number.
What are the Genshin anniversary 2026 rewards? They have not been announced. As of 9 September 2026 there is no anniversary item on the official news feed or the in-game notice board. Any specific 2026 reward list you see is extrapolated from previous years.
How many Primogems does the Genshin anniversary give? In every year from 2021 to 2025 it was 1,600 Primogems, delivered as four separate 400-Primogem in-game mails across four days, plus 10 Intertwined Fates from a separate login event. That package has not changed in five years, but it has not been confirmed for 2026.
Will there be a free 5-star for the 2026 anniversary? Unconfirmed, and it is the least safe assumption on the list. HoYoverse gave a free selectable standard 5-star in 2024 and 2025, but not in 2021, 2022 or 2023. It would also be a standard-banner character rather than a new limited one.
When will HoYoverse reveal the 2026 anniversary rewards? Most likely during the Version 7.1 Special Program on 12 September 2026 at 08:00 (UTC-4). Version 7.0's Phase II wishes end on 22 September, so 7.1 is almost certainly the version live on the 28 September anniversary — and the reveal has consistently come in the Special Program for whichever version covers the anniversary.
Is Version 7.1 releasing on 23 September 2026? HoYoverse has not formally announced the date, but its own in-game notices point at it: the three version-level Version 7.0 announcements expire at a single global instant of 22 September 2026, 22:00 UTC — 23 September 06:00 on the Asia server — which is when update maintenance begins. Most third-party "23 September" figures are instead a six-week-cycle guess. Expect formal confirmation during the 12 September Special Program.
Do the anniversary rewards all arrive on 28 September? No. The Primogem mail starts on or around the anniversary, but the login event carrying the Intertwined Fates has often run afterwards — 14–31 October in 2022, and 1–21 October in 2025. Check the Events tab into late October.
Should I wait until the anniversary to return to Genshin Impact? No. The Stellar Reunion returnee track runs for 14 days from activation and expires whether or not you use it, so saving it for the anniversary gains you nothing. Returning now lets you clear the returnee rewards and the current 7.0 events before anniversary content stacks on top.
