WoW Forever Launches November 4, 2026. Here Is Every Date Before It.

World of Warcraft: Forever launches on November 4, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. PST, worldwide, in one go. Blizzard set the date at the BlizzCon 2026 opening ceremony on September 12 and repeated it in the pre-purchase post the same day. Nothing about the date is soft. It is 53 days from the announcement and the beta starts five days after the ceremony.

Every date below comes from Blizzard's own pre-purchase post or from the 2026/2027 roadmap graphic Blizzard published alongside it. Where the two disagree, I say so.

The calendar

September 17: beta opens. Level cap 30. How to get in is its own post. The pre-purchase post says the beta runs through October 21. The roadmap graphic says October 22. Blizzard's two sources are a day apart, so plan on "late October" and do not book anything around the last day.

September 17: live Q&A. Blizzard's printed BlizzCon schedule lists a World of Warcraft live Q&A on Thursday September 17 at 10:00 a.m. PDT (18:00 BST) on the official Warcraft Twitch and YouTube channels, with a VOD after. Questions go in the forums ahead of time. This is the first chance for the team to add dates to the things that have none, Hardcore above all.

October 20: Invite-A-Friend codes. Codes start going out by email. The Heroic Pack carries one launch code, the Epic Pack three.

October 27 to November 3: early name reservation. Up to three characters, first come first served, names not guaranteed. It comes with any upgrade purchase. With no server selection in Forever, names are unique per region rather than per server, which is why this window exists at all.

November 4: launch. 3:00 p.m. PST. Base access is included with a normal WoW subscription or Game Time. There is no box price.

November 4 to 11: launch-week friend access. The codes from October 20 work for launch week too.

December 9: three raids. Barrow Deeps at 10 players, Hyjal Summit at 20, Onyxia's Lair at 40. Five weeks and one day after launch. Three raid sizes live at once is the hook Blizzard is selling, and it is a real change from vanilla's 40-or-nothing.

Spring 2027: the first content wave. Two new raids (10 and 20 player), two new dungeons, new quests and a new playable area, a new legendary questline, and a PvP season refresh. No month on the graphic.

Summer 2027: the second wave. A revamped iconic raid Blizzard has not named, one new raid, expanded world content, two more dungeons, another PvP season refresh, and professions and Legacy updates. Also no month.

January 11, 2027: the Warcraft Forever Collection leaves the shop. The Collection bundles the Epic Pack with Warcraft III: Reforged and the Forsaken Kingdom campaign.

What I could not confirm

The beta end date, as above. The prices of the Epic Pack and the Collection, which I have only seen in a third-party report and not on Blizzard's shop. And any date for Hardcore, which Blizzard's September 13 design panel recap says "launches after release" and nothing more.

Two of these dates matter more than the rest. September 17 decides whether you play anything before November, and October 27 decides whether you get your name. Set alarms for those two.