Escape From Tarkov Winter 2025–26 Twitch Drops: How to Claim Every Reward Before They Expire
Escape From Tarkov rings in the holidays with Winter Twitch Drops, running December 22 to January 4, 2026. Watch EFT streams to claim loot boxes packed with Common, Rare, and even Epic rewards.
Heads up if you dabble in Tarkov between movie marathons: the game just flipped on a Winter Twitch Drops event, and there are some actual reasons to log in after you claim the freebies. It’s straightforward, but there are a couple gotchas worth flagging so you don’t miss anything.
Winter Twitch Drops: what you get and how to snag it
The new Escape From Tarkov Winter Twitch Drops are live from December 22 through January 4, 2026. Watch eligible Tarkov streams on Twitch and you’ll earn loot boxes that can roll out Common, Rare, or even Epic rewards. It’s time-gated per reward, so you do have to stick around long enough for each drop tier to unlock.
Before you start watching, make sure your accounts are actually linked. If they aren’t, nothing counts and you’ll hate yourself later.
- Go to the Battlestate Games Account Center and open your profile
- Hit 'Linked Accounts'
- Find the Twitch row and click 'Link'
After you’ve watched for the required time, hop over to the 'Drops & Rewards' section on Twitch and manually claim each item. If you forget that last part, the goodies don’t land in your Tarkov stash.
Patch 1.0.1.0 adds a new event: Kolotum
Once the drops are in your pocket, the game itself has a new detour: an event called Kolotum bundled with Patch 1.0.1.0. It’s built around a set of objectives, and finishing the run nets you a unique achievement plus in-game rewards. You can tackle it whether you’re playing PvE or PvP, so no one’s locked out.
New gear, faster matchmaking, and some useful clarity
The patch also drops the M110 SASS marksman rifle into the arsenal, along with a new container you can haul into raids while you scavenge. On the systems side, matchmaking’s been tweaked so queues should move quicker, and the game now shows an estimated wait time before you load into a raid. All of this was pushed based on player feedback, and the devs slipped in a few quality-of-life notes too: settings menus now spell out how certain options affect gameplay and your system’s performance. Not flashy, but genuinely helpful.
A quick note on timing
For anyone tracking the big-picture stuff, Battlestate lists the release year as 2025. Meanwhile, this Winter Drops window runs right into early 2026. Calendar chaos aside, the takeaway is simple: claim the drops, try the event, and enjoy the queue improvements while they’re hot.