For the famous New Year’s Eve Times Square celebration, the ball begins its 60‑second descent at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time and “drops” exactly at midnight to ring in the new year.

When the ball will drop

  • The New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square starts moving at 11:59 p.m. ET on December 31 and completes its fall at 12:00 a.m. ET on January 1.
  • The whole televised “countdown” you see is built around that final 60‑second descent to midnight.

Special 2026 twist

  • For the 2025–2026 New Year’s Eve going into 2026, there is an additional patriotic lighting moment a few minutes after midnight as part of America250 celebrations, but the actual ball drop still happens just once at 11:59 p.m.–midnight.
  • Separately, the decorated Times Square Ball is also scheduled to drop again on July 3, 2026, on the eve of the United States’ 250th birthday, marking the first ball drop there outside New Year’s Eve.

TL;DR: The Times Square New Year’s ball drop happens every year starting at 11:59 p.m. ET and finishes at midnight, with 2026 adding an extra commemorative moment after midnight and a rare second drop on July 3, 2026.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.