WoW Forever: what it is, release date and the PC you need to play it well

WoW Forever is the short name for World of Warcraft: Forever, the new permanent version of World of Warcraft that Blizzard announced at BlizzCon 2026 and that launches on 4 November 2026 (in Europe, at 23:59 CET that night). It isn't a mode or a season: it's a third WoW that sits alongside modern WoW and WoW Classic, runs from level 1 to 60 in a reimagined original Azeroth and is included in the subscription. To play it, Blizzard asks for at least a 4-core processor at 3.0 GHz, a 4 GB DirectX 12 graphics card, 8 GB of RAM and an SSD; the recommended spec rises to 8 cores at 5.2 GHz, an 8 GB graphics card and 16 GB of RAM.

Below you'll find what it brings, what it costs, the dates that matter (name reservation opens on 27 October) and which PC is worth having to enjoy it without stuttering in crowded capitals and in raids.

WoW Forever at a glance

• Launch: 4 November 2026, 23:59 CET (3pm Pacific Time).

• Access: included with your World of Warcraft subscription or game time.

• Platforms: Windows and Mac, via the Battle.net desktop app.

• Level cap: 60.

• Main new features: a new race (the Skyborne), more than 1,000 new quests, nine new dungeons and raids from 9 December.

• Blizzard's recommended PC: 8 performance cores at 5.2 GHz, an 8 GB DirectX 12 graphics card, 16 GB of RAM and an SSD.

What WoW Forever is and how it differs from WoW Classic

For years, part of the community asked for a ‘Classic+’: the original WoW, but with new content instead of replaying what had already been played back in 2004. World of Warcraft: Forever is Blizzard's answer. The company describes it as ‘a new, permanent home separate from modern WoW and WoW Classic’, and the summary of its presentation stresses that it isn't a mode, a season or a new version of Classic.

The story is set on its own timeline: after the events of Warcraft III: Reforged – Forsaken Kingdom and before the Molten Core raid. You return to the original continents, level from 1 to 60 and discover expanded zones, new quests and redesigned classes. The level cap stays at 60 and the game will grow with content updates over time.

It installs from the same Battle.net app as the other versions: choose World of Warcraft and, in the game version menu, select World of Warcraft: Forever. All the official information is in Blizzard's announcement.

WoW Forever key dates

• 17 September – 22 October: beta (now over), with levelling up to level 30.

• 27 October (18:00 CET) – 3 November: early name reservation and character creation, only for players who have bought an upgrade pack. You can reserve up to three names per account.

• 4 November, 23:59 CET: worldwide launch.

• 5 – 11 November: the invite codes included in the packs let a friend play during launch week.

• 9 December: the first level-60 raids open.

• Winter: the Hardcore ruleset arrives.

• Spring and summer 2027: major updates with raids, dungeons, new quests, a legendary questline and a revamped classic raid.

Blizzard warns in its roadmap that content and dates may change based on player feedback.

What's new in World of Warcraft: Forever

The Skyborne and Zephras Isle

The headline addition is a new playable race: the Skyborne (célicos in the Spanish version), elves from the newly discovered Zephras Isle, where their starting experience from level 1 to 12 takes place. When you create your character, you choose whether they join the Horde or the Alliance: Horde Skyborne can be Shamans and Alliance Skyborne, Mages. On both sides they can also be Warriors, Hunters, Rogues and Druids. Bear in mind that the race and its starting zone don't come with the subscription; they require the Heroic pack or a higher edition.

More race and class combinations

The list of races and classes grows with combinations that didn't exist in the original WoW, such as Dwarf Shamans and Forsaken Paladins. On top of that, every specialisation gets changes to its talents and abilities, with choices that come with pros and cons.

New zones, dungeons and raids

The familiar map expands with zones such as Mount Hyjal, Shen'dralas (between Mulgore and Desolace) and Riverglades, which on its own adds more than 150 quests. In total, Blizzard talks about more than 1,000 new quests between levels 1 and 60.

• Nine new five-player dungeons for levels 13 to 60, including the City of Dalaran, the Ruins of Lordaeron, the Drowned City and Alcaz Prison.

• Level-60 raids from 9 December: Barrow Deeps (10 players), Hyjal Summit (20 players) and Onyxia's Lair (40 players).

• PvP: a 15-versus-15 battleground on the Darkspear Islands that mixes control points with flag capture.

New systems and quality-of-life options

• Camping: campfires that players craft in the open world; others can come over, chip in with their professions and share the camp's upgrades.

• Legacy progression: designed for players who enjoy levelling and playing several characters (alts).

• Optional transmog, with modern or classic visual settings.

• High-definition (HD) or standard-definition (SD) character models, with the classic animations restored for the HD models.

• Official controller support.

• Rendering improvements: flowing rivers in Elwynn Forest, fog over Darkshore and moonlight in Ashenvale.

No realms: you choose a ruleset

WoW Forever does away with the realm selection screen. Before creating your character, you choose a ruleset: Normal, PvP, RP or RP-PvP (the last one added in October), and later on Hardcore. Each one works as a large ecosystem of players: groups, dungeons and raids are formed within the same ruleset, and you can't switch freely from one to another; to play on a different one, you have to create a new character.

How much it costs to play WoW Forever

WoW Forever isn't sold separately: access is included with your World of Warcraft subscription or game time. What is on sale are optional upgrade packs. In the European Battle.net shop, as of 26 October 2026, they cost:

• Skyborne Heroic Pack (€29.99): the Skyborne race and their Zephras Isle starting experience, early name reservation, a ground mount, cosmetic items and an invite code.

• Skyborne Epic Pack (€59.99): everything above, plus 30 days of game time, a bear mount with a matching transmog set, tabards, pets and two more invite codes.

• Warcraft Forever Collection (€79.99): everything in the Epic pack, plus Warcraft III: Reforged and its new Forsaken Kingdom campaign. It's only on sale until 11 January 2027.

There's also a physical Collector's Edition, sold in the Blizzard Gear store while stocks last. Prices are those shown in the Battle.net shop and may vary.

Official WoW Forever PC requirements

These are the requirements Blizzard publishes on the World of Warcraft: Forever page on Battle.net. There's an important change compared with what many Classic players have at home: the new visuals rely on a feature of modern graphics cards (RGBA16F UAV in compute shaders) that older cards lack.

WoW Forever minimum requirements (Windows)

• Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit (May 2019 Update or later).

• Processor: 4 cores at 3.0 GHz (Intel Core Haswell generation or AMD Ryzen Zen).

• Graphics card: 4 GB, DirectX 12 compatible (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 series, AMD RDNA 1 or Intel Iris Xe2-LPG graphics from Lunar Lake).

• Memory: 8 GB of RAM.

• Storage: 128 GB free on an SSD.

• Other: broadband internet connection and a display of at least 1280 × 720.

WoW Forever recommended requirements (Windows)

• Operating system: Windows 11.

• Processor: 8 performance cores with a 5.2 GHz turbo frequency (Intel Core Ultra Series 2 or AMD Ryzen Zen 5).

• Graphics card: 8 GB, DirectX 12 compatible (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series, AMD RDNA 3 or Intel Arc B-series).

• Memory: 16 GB of RAM.

• Storage: 128 GB free on an SSD.

• Input: multi-button mouse with a scroll wheel.

Mac requirements

Minimum: macOS 12, Apple M2 or 9th-generation Intel Core Coffee Lake, a 4 GB Metal-compatible graphics card (or M2 with 8 GB of memory), 8 GB of RAM and an SSD with 128 GB free. Recommended: macOS 15, Apple M4 with 16 GB.

Older graphics cards that are left out

With the launch of Forever, Blizzard is dropping support for graphics cards older than these architectures: AMD Graphics Core Next 1 (2012), NVIDIA Maxwell (2014) and Intel Skylake (2015). A Radeon HD 7850, a GeForce GTX 750 Ti or a 900 series card are still supported; the GeForce GTX 760, 770 and 780 no longer are. Blizzard makes clear in its note on GPU requirements that even the supported cards fall well short of the minimum, so the real starting point is a GTX 10 series card or equivalent with 4 GB.

What about modern WoW?

If you also play Midnight, modern WoW's current expansion, its official requirements ask for a bit more processor at the minimum (6 cores at 4.0 GHz turbo, Intel Core Coffee Lake or AMD Ryzen Zen 2) and match on the recommended spec: 8 performance cores at 5.2 GHz, an 8 GB graphics card and 16 GB of RAM. A PC that meets the recommended spec for Forever works just as well for both versions.

Which PC you need to play WoW Forever well

The minimum requirements get you into the game. To play smoothly in a packed capital, in a 15-versus-15 battleground or in Onyxia's Lair with 40 players, it's worth getting close to the recommended spec. Here are the key points, component by component.

Processor: the part you notice most in an MMO

In World of Warcraft, scenes with lots of people and lots of effects on screen put most of the load on the processor, and that's where FPS drop the most. That's why Blizzard sets the recommended bar so high: 8 performance cores and 5.2 GHz turbo, in other words processors from the latest Intel and AMD generations. If you have to split your budget, prioritise a modern processor with strong per-core performance over a very high-end graphics card.

Graphics card to match your monitor's resolution

For 1080p, a current mid-range graphics card with 8 GB of memory, like the one Blizzard recommends, is enough. If you play at 1440p on a high-refresh-rate monitor or want maximum quality, an upper mid-range card with 12 GB or more is the way to go. For 4K, the sensible choice is a high-end card with 16 GB.

RAM and storage

With 16 GB of RAM in dual channel (two modules), you have what Blizzard asks for. If you also run Discord and a browser, stream live or switch between modern WoW and Forever, 32 GB gives you headroom. For storage, an SSD is a must: a 1 TB NVMe SSD leaves room for Forever, modern WoW and other games without running short of space.

Three suggested builds

• Smooth 1080p: modern 6- to 8-core processor, 8 GB graphics card, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB NVMe SSD.

• 1440p with a 144 Hz or faster monitor: latest-generation processor with 8 performance cores, a graphics card with 12 GB or more, 32 GB of RAM and a 1 TB NVMe SSD.

• 4K, or gaming and streaming at the same time: high-end processor, 16 GB graphics card, 32 GB of RAM and a 2 TB NVMe SSD.

These are general guidelines. You can tailor each component to your budget in our PC configurator and see straight away how the build turns out.

Mouse, keyboard and controller

WoW is played with lots of keys and abilities, so a mouse with side buttons helps (Blizzard includes one in the recommended spec). And as Forever brings official controller support, you can also play from the sofa. In peripherals you'll find mice, keyboards and controllers to complete your setup.

Your PC for WoW Forever, built in Andorra

At MEGA SYSTEM we build every gaming PC by hand in Escaldes-Engordany and put it through 24 hours of testing before delivery, so it arrives ready to play. You can choose one of our pre-built gaming PCs or configure yours part by part, and if you're torn between options, a real person will help you via chat or our form, no bots.

We deliver within 24 hours to every parish in Andorra, or you can collect your PC free of charge from our shop at Av. Carlemany, 38, open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 13:30 and from 16:00 to 20:30. The PCs we build come with a 3-year warranty, with repairs carried out in our workshop in Escaldes-Engordany.

Frequently asked questions

Is WoW Forever free?

It has no purchase price, but you need an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time. The upgrade packs (from €29.99) are optional, although the Skyborne race and Zephras Isle can only be unlocked with them.

What time does WoW Forever launch in Spain and Andorra?

Blizzard gives 4 November 2026 at 23:59 CET, which is the time in mainland Spain and Andorra. In the Americas it launches on 4 November at 3pm Pacific Time.

Can I play WoW Forever with an old graphics card?

You need a graphics card with an AMD GCN 1, NVIDIA Maxwell or Intel Skylake architecture or later; the GeForce GTX 760, 770 and 780 are no longer supported. Even so, the official minimum is a 4 GB DirectX 12 card on a par with a GeForce GTX 10 series.

Does it work on a Mac or a laptop?

Yes. There's a Mac version (minimum Apple M2 or 9th-generation Intel Core with macOS 12). On Windows laptops, Blizzard accepts, at the very least, the Intel Iris Xe2 integrated graphics in Lunar Lake processors; with a dedicated graphics card the game will run considerably better.

Can you play WoW Forever with a controller?

Yes. World of Warcraft: Forever has official controller support, as well as the classic keyboard and mouse controls.

Do you have to choose a realm in WoW Forever?

No. Instead of realms, you choose a ruleset (Normal, PvP, RP, RP-PvP and, later on, Hardcore). Each ruleset brings together a large number of players and you can't switch freely from one to another.