World of Warcraft: Forever Launches 4 Nov at 23:00 UTC

Blizzard has confirmed the launch time for World of Warcraft: Forever, its reimagined take on the original Azeroth. It goes live worldwide on Wednesday 4 November 2026 at 3:00 pm PST, which is 23:00 UTC and 6:00 pm ET. Access is included with a standard World of Warcraft subscription or Game Time, so there's no separate box price to play it.

Note the clocks: US daylight saving time ends on 1 November, so the 3:00 pm PST launch is 23:00 UTC, an hour later in UTC terms than the same Pacific time in October. In Europe that's midnight CET going into 5 November, and in India it's 4:30 am IST on 5 November.

Converted from Blizzard's stated 3:00 pm PST launch time.

What WoW: Forever is

Forever is a third, permanent version of the game that sits alongside modern World of Warcraft and WoW Classic. It's set after Warcraft III Reforged: Forsaken Kingdom and before Molten Core, and it caps at level 60 across the original two continents. Rather than replaying 2004 unchanged, Blizzard is adding more than 1,000 new quests, new and reworked zones such as Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas, the Riverglades and Zephras Isle, nine new five-player dungeons, and a new playable race, the Skyborne, who can join either the Horde or the Alliance.

There are no traditional realms. You pick a ruleset (Normal, PvP, Roleplay or Roleplay PvP), and characters get a two-part name that is unique within a region. On first login you also choose a Classic or Enhanced presentation preset, which you can change later. A Hardcore ruleset, where death is permanent, is coming "sometime after launch"; Blizzard's roadmap places it in winter.

Key dates after launch

• 4 to 11 November: launch week. Buyers of the optional upgrade packs get Invite-A-Friend codes that let a friend play without a subscription during this window.

• 9 December: three raids open for level 60 players: Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20) and Onyxia's Lair (40), according to Blizzard's roadmap.

• Winter: Hardcore ruleset. Spring and summer updates on the roadmap add more raids, dungeons and a new legendary questline, with Blizzard saying content and timing can change.

What's still unclear

Blizzard hasn't given a date for Hardcore or for the spring update. Prices for the optional Skyborne Heroic Pack, Skyborne Epic Pack and Warcraft Forever Collection are set on the Battle.net Shop by region, and we haven't confirmed them, so we're not listing them here. You don't need any of them to play: the base game comes with a subscription or Game Time.

Before you log in

If you're coming back to an old PC install, our guides on reinstalling a game without losing your saves and finding and installing purchased DLC and add-ons cover the basics. You can browse more launches on our games hub.