The WoW Forever release date is Wednesday 4 November 2026. Blizzard sets one global launch at 3:00 p.m. PST. The same moment is 23:00 UTC, and midnight CET on Thursday 5 November. The official roadmap ends the beta on 22 October. Early name reservation and character creation open on 27 October.

The World of Warcraft: Forever logo. Image: Blizzard Entertainment.

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Blizzard announced the date in its WoW Forever announcement. The launch is one global moment for every region.

Forever is a permanent branch beside Retail and Classic, with a level cap of 60. The wiki says there will be no cap increases, no flying mounts and no level scaling.

Access is included with a World of Warcraft Subscription or Game Time. Gfinity lists the subscription at $14.99 per month. The Skyborne race and the Zephras Isle start need a paid pack. Our guide to every WoW Forever edition and price lists what each pack contains.

Every row comes from 23:00 UTC on 4 November 2026. We checked daylight saving for each zone on that date. Many zones change their clocks in October or early November, so old conversions can be one hour wrong.

PST is UTC minus 8 hours, so 3:00 p.m. PST plus 8 hours gives 23:00 UTC. For each other zone, we added its UTC offset on 4 November to 23:00 UTC. The daylight saving dates come from the IANA time zone database, the standard list of world clock rules. For a city that is not in the table, add its 4 November offset to 23:00 UTC.

You will see three other times online.

The safe rule: trust the 23:00 UTC anchor and convert from there.

Blizzard says the WoW Forever beta began on Thursday 17 September 2026. The Skyborne Epic Pack included beta access from 17 September.

The official roadmap image shows the beta from 17 September to 22 October. Zockify and PC Games Hardware say the beta runs through 21 October, Pacific Time. Sources disagree by one day, so plan for 21 October as the earliest end.

The beta opened with a level cap of 20. Blizzard raised the cap to 30 on 1 October, and Warcraft Tavern says the cap stays at 30 for the rest of the beta. Testers cannot play levels 31 to 60 or raids. Beta progress does not carry over to launch, so every character starts fresh on 4 November.

Blizzard raised the beta population cap twice in late September. Most beta facts here come from the Warcraft Tavern beta guide.

We found no build-by-build Blizzard patch notes. The changes below come from developer notes and a podcast that press sites quote. All values are beta values and can still change.

The dungeon changes affect your leveling plan the most. Our WoW Forever dungeon list with levels and dungeon XP covers all 9 new dungeons. For the respec rules and talent calculators, read our WoW Forever talent tree guide.

The official roadmap lists early name reservation and character creation on 27 October. Blizzard Watch says the window runs to 3 November, with up to 3 characters. Blizzard lists Early Name Reservation as an item in the Skyborne Heroic Pack. The Epic Pack and the Warcraft Forever Collection include everything in Heroic. Our sources do not say if players without a pack can reserve names early.

Each character gets a first name and a surname. Method.gg says names are unique across the whole region. Each name must be 2 to 12 characters long, and both names are required. Read the Method.gg name and ruleset guide for the full rules.

Forever has no traditional realms. Blizzard Watch reports one mega-realm per ruleset in each region. Method.gg says layers are added and removed as the population changes. No server cap is published.

There are four rulesets: Normal, PvP, Roleplay and Hardcore. Normal, PvP and Roleplay open at launch. You can group only with players of the same faction on the same ruleset. The Blizzard Watch report on realmless servers has the details.

For server status, we found no Forever-specific status page in our sources as of 11 October 2026.

Official WoW Forever key art. Image: Blizzard Entertainment.

Hardcore does not open on 4 November. The roadmap places it in Winter 2026/2027 with no exact date. A dead Hardcore character can move to another ruleset, now including PvP. Collections and Legacy Points from Hardcore carry to the other rulesets. Points do not carry the other way. Our WoW Forever Legacy Points explainer covers how points work.

The official WoW Forever roadmap from the beta to Summer 2027. Image: Blizzard Entertainment.

The roadmap gives exact dates up to 9 December and seasons after that. The footer says "content and timing subject to change". The table adds beta dates from press sources.

For a text version, see the Blizzard Watch roadmap summary.

The raids unlock five weeks after launch. Warcraft Tavern lists one Legacy point for each of the three launch raids.

The wiki quotes Blizzard's aim for Forever as "approachable and familiar". The launch rules still differ from a Classic launch.

Your leveling time to 20 should be close to Classic. The new quests change the route, and an old Classic route skips them.

A route guide helps most at step 7. The RestedXP update of 9 October 2026 says its Forever guides for levels 1 to 35 are done, with separate Horde and Alliance routes for Zephras Isle.

RestedXP roadmap: Speedrun Guide done, Dungeon Leveling Guide in progress. Screenshot: RestedXP shop, 11 October 2026.

RestedXP gives you a quest arrow and step list, and its Forever guides for levels 1 to 35 are done (RestedXP update, 9 October 2026). Forever routes for 35 to 60 come after launch, and the existing Era routes cover 35 to 60 until then. The Dungeon Leveling Guide is work in progress, and RestedXP builds the guide alongside the game with regular updates. Our link takes 10% off in the cart: Both Factions costs $40.50 and one faction costs $27.00.

The RestedXP addon itself is a free download. The Forever guides are the paid part. The RestedXP coupon guide shows the cart steps.

WoW Forever launches on Wednesday 4 November 2026: 6:00 p.m. EST in New York and 11:00 p.m. GMT in London.

The official roadmap shows 22 October 2026. Two press sites say 21 October, Pacific Time.

The cap is 30. The cap started at 20 and went up on 1 October. Warcraft Tavern says the cap stays at 30 until the beta closes.

The sourced way in was the Skyborne Epic Pack, which Blizzard says includes beta access from 17 September. Gfinity calls it guaranteed beta access. Our sources describe no free opt-in form. The beta closes on 21 or 22 October.

You choose a ruleset, not a named server. Each ruleset is one mega-realm in your region, with layers that Blizzard adds and removes.

We found no preload or pre-patch date as of 11 October 2026. Free the disk space early.

The roadmap says Winter 2026/2027. Blizzard has not given a date.