When is Rainbow Six Year 7 Season 3? Operation Brutal Swarm release date & details

Nathan Warby
Rainbow Six Siege Grim

Rainbow Six Siege Year 7 is coming up to its midway point, and Season 3, Operation Brutal Swarm, is set to arrive very soon. Here’s the Rainbow Six Year 7 Season 3 release date, and all the new content players can expect to see.

After a lackluster launch back in 2015, Rainbow Six Siege has gone from strength to strength since it switched to a live service model. Ubisoft have supported the game with years of new content, and the tactical shooter now has a healthy playerbase logging in every month.

Year 7 has seen the new additions come even more regularly, and players can’t wait to see what the next season has in store.

Rainbow Six Siege Year 7, titled Operation Brutal Swarm, has been officially announced, so here’s everything expected to arrive in the update, and when it will go live.

Rainbow Six Year 7 Season 3 release date

Rainbow Six Operation Brutal Swarm will arrive on the test servers on August 26, before going live on September 6, 2022.

The release date was revealed during the Six Berlin Major, alongside plenty of details surrounding the new season and what players can look forward to in Operation Brutal Swarm.

Rainbow Six Year 7 Season 3 new Operator

The marquee addition in Year 7 Season 3 is a brand-new Operator named Grim, giving players another attacker to choose from.

He comes with a unique Gadget, the Kawan Hive Launcher, which deploys a swarm of robotic bees that reveal the location of any defenders who happen to be close by. Those marked by the bees will be tracked in real-time and will be subjected to a visual distraction onscreen.

Mute’s jammers will be the best way to counteract Grim’s Hive, as it prevents the bees from releasing and stops them from being able to track anyone who is already marked.

Rainbow Six Year 7 Season 3 balancing changes

Rainbow Six Siege Creative director Alexander Karpazis described Operation Brutal Swarm as “the season of balancing,” as a number of changes will be arriving to make matches feel more equal.

The recoil system affecting LMGs is being reworked to make them less accurate during long bursts of sustained fire, forcing players to be more thoughtful about how they use the weapon type. Vertical and horizontal recoil are also being increased, but attachments will now offer bigger boosts in this area to make them viable.

Ubisoft are also introducing a new secondary gadget, Impact EMP Grenades. These should serve as an effective counter to the Kawan Hive Launcher used by Grim, and mean that Thatcher, who also uses EMP Grenades, will no longer dominate matches.

Finally, Rook’s R1N “RHINO” Armor Plates will give players Withstand when they are knocked down, allowing them to stand back up with 5% of their health intact.

Rainbow Six Year 7 Season 3 Stadium added permanently

The final major change in Operation Brutal Swarm is the addition of Stadium as a permanent Ranked map. This map, which combines Coastline and Border into one battleground, was only previously available for a limited time during events.

However, going forward, it will be playable across all Ranked playlists, with a handful of changes to the lighting and spawns to make matches run more smoothly.

Ubisoft had planned to release a brand-new map in Year 7 Season 3, but this is on hold until the final season of the year.


For more Rainbow Six, check out our crossplay guide and everything we know so far about Rainbow Six Siege Mobile.

Image credit: Ubisoft

About The Author

Nathan is a Senior Writer for CharlieIntel and Dexerto, primarily covering FIFA and Call of Duty, as well as general gaming news and guides. After leaving university with a degree in Sports Studies and a master's degree in Magazine Journalism, he took on a role as a local news reporter before moving into games media. You can contact Nathan by email at [email protected].