WoW Forever Release Date: 4 November 2026 at 3:00 PM PST, Beta, Editions and Raids

World of Warcraft: Forever launches on 4 November 2026 at 3:00 PM PST. That is 1 moment for the whole world: 23:00 UTC, midnight in central Europe, 8:00 AM on 5 November in Seoul and 10:00 AM on 5 November in Sydney. There is no early access and no separate EU or NA unlock.

You play on PC or Mac. Access is included in a World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time. There is no box to buy. The packs on the Battle.net shop add the Skyborne race and cosmetics, and the game runs without them.

The setting opens in the chapter right after Warcraft III. The level cap is 60. Blizzard calls Forever a permanent home next to modern WoW and Classic, with new content added for years.

3 gaps in this calendar matter. Beta closes on 23 October at 10:00 AM PDT and name reservation opens on 27 October, so a beta character has 4 days to disappear before anything permanent exists. Name reservation closes on 3 November, 1 day before launch. And the raids open 5 weeks after launch.

Blizzard's roadmap slide carries its own note that timing can change. This guide is updated the day a date moves. The full year, with the 2027 updates, is on the roadmap guide.

The 5 weeks between launch and the raids are your window to reach 60. The climb from level 1 takes about 150 hours of play. To be 60 on 9 December, you play more than 4 hours every day from launch night.

Blizzard’s PAX Aus keynote aired on 8 October at 6:00 PM PDT, billed by Blizzard as a look at 1 of the new dungeons being added to Forever. 2 dates land before the beta closes. The community-run Forever Open duel tournament runs on the beta on 17 and 18 October with a 100,000-dollar prize pool. Invite-A-Friend codes go out by email from 20 October to buyers of the upgrade editions that include them. The beta level cap rose from 20 to 30 on 1 October. On 20 October Blizzard extended the beta by 2 days: it closes on 23 October at 10:00 AM PDT (17:00 UTC).

The stress test runs on 21 October from 2:00 to 6:00 PM PDT (21:00 to 01:00 UTC) on the regional launch hardware. No subscription is needed. Stress test characters and names are deleted after it, and the beta then reopens until the 23rd. Name reservation runs from 27 October to 3 November for anyone who owns a pack: Europe from 18:00 CET, North America from 1:00 PM PDT, Korea and Taiwan from 07:00 on 28 October.

Forever is Classic Azeroth with new content built into the 1 to 60 journey. Blizzard has confirmed more than 1,000 new quests, 9 new dungeons, the Riverglades zone for the mid 30s to the mid 40s, and Mount Hyjal at 60. 6 new race and class combos are in from day 1: Gnome Priest, Human Hunter, Dwarf Shaman, Orc Mage, Troll Warlock and Undead Paladin. The Skyborne race and its Zephras Isle start need a pack.

Darkspear Islands is a new 15v15 battleground. Camping, the account-wide Legacy system, opt-in transmog and a new lighting pass are all live at launch. 2 things are not in Forever: a WoW Token and a paid level boost. On the beta the group finder is a listing board where you invite players by hand, with no automated dungeon finder, and since the 1 October build every listing picks a playstyle: Learning, Relaxed, Competitive or Carry Offered (observed on the beta). Every live character starts at level 1 on 4 November.

Character creation asks for a ruleset, Normal, PvP or Roleplaying, instead of a realm name. Hardcore is a 4th ruleset that opens after launch. Blizzard’s roadmap puts it in the winter, with no day yet.

Subscription or Game Time is enough to log in on 4 November. The Battle.net shop sells 3 optional packs. The Skyborne Heroic Pack ($29.99) unlocks the Skyborne race with its Zephras Isle start, early name reservation, the Cerulean Prideclaw mount, cosmetics and 1 invite code. The Skyborne Epic Pack ($59.99) adds beta access, 30 days of game time from 4 November and 3 invite codes in total. The Warcraft Forever Collection ($79.99) adds Warcraft III: Reforged with its Forsaken Kingdom campaign, and it leaves the shop on 11 January 2027.

A physical Collector's Edition costs $150 on the Blizzard Gear Store: the Collection code, a 13-inch dwarf and bear statue, a mousepad, prints, pins and a journal, limit 1 per household on the Gear Store restock. Gear Store restock boxes ship around February 2027.

An invite code lets a friend play Forever from 4 to 11 November without a subscription. Codes are emailed from 20 October. Full comparison: the editions guide.

At 3:00 PM PST the queues start and the starting zones fill. Plan for a queue on launch night. Level 60 is about 150 hours of play on a quest-led route. An evening pace near 3 hours puts 60 around 24 December, after the raids open. The 1st 5 weeks decide the whole launch. A character that is 60 by 18 November gets 3 weeks of dungeons and gold before 9 December. A character that is 60 in late December raids in January.

The XP curve is unchanged from Classic. On 1 October Blizzard cut the bonus XP from dungeon quests by 50%. On 8 October it raised the XP from dungeon kills by about 20% and based party XP on each player’s own level. Blizzard says that with perfect play, dungeon leveling now comes very close to the speed of optimal questing. The 150-hour estimate holds for a quest-led route. Groups form through group finder listings and in chat.

The class decision comes before 27 October. Name reservation closes 1 day before launch, and a reserved character keeps its class. The 6 new combos and the fastest leveling classes are in the leveling speed guide.

Custom order starts at $49 for any level bracket in the leveling builder. Full 1 to 60 is $299 with 1 booster in 14 days or $420 with 2 boosters in 7 days. The hours behind every leveling price are re-checked on the beta, and a placed pre-order never goes up. A human Pro plays your character in our own gaming hubs, on a PC dedicated to your account and a residential IP address in your city, so it looks exactly like you playing from home.

Raid spots for 9 December are $419 for Barrow Deeps, $439 for Hyjal Summit and $349 for Onyxia's Lair.

Book the leveling and a raid together and both orders sit in 1 chat, so the same team plans the hand-off from 60 to the raid night.