World of Warcraft: Forever beta FAQ

The beta opened on September 17 and closes at 10:00 a.m. PDT on October 23, two days later than first planned. This page answers the questions people are actually asking about it, from what Blizzard has published and nothing else. Where Blizzard has not said, the answer says so, with the date we last checked. The full picture of the game is on Everything we know, and the money question is in Which edition should you buy?

Dates and times

When does the beta start and end?

It opened on September 17, 2026, and closes at 10:00 a.m. PDT on Friday, October 23, the time Kaivax gave on October 20; Blizzard’s pre-purchase post had given October 21. Blizzard’s pre-purchase post gives the original dates as “PST” and its Collector’s Edition post says “PDT”. Pacific daylight time is in force on both dates, so read them as Pacific and ignore the letters.

What time on September 17 does it open?

Blizzard never published an hour, but it did tie the opening to an event: the beta goes live immediately after the September 17 live developer stream Confirmed Blizzard. That stream began at 10:00 a.m. PDT with the modern game and turned to Forever at 10:30. Blizzard’s support article says the beta client “will be available for installation in the Battle.net App once testing begins”, and the client was there to install that day.

Is there a schedule? Will the servers go down?

Expect it. Blizzard Support says the beta client “may be offline at any moment” and points to the official beta forums, English only, for the schedule. That forum exists since September 17: the WoW: Forever Beta Discussion category, where Blizzard’s Kaivax posts the known issues.

What else happens around the start?

Two Blizzard streams bracketed it. The Forever deep-dive panel ran on September 13 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, on the BlizzCon stream. A live World of Warcraft Q&A followed on September 17 at 10:00 a.m. PDT on Warcraft’s Twitch and YouTube channels, with questions taken in advance on the forums and a VOD afterward. What the Forever half covered is in our news: the raid structure by tier, the GDKP ban, realmless names and Oceanic servers, the Skyborne’s origin, PvP without ratings and the transmog silhouette rule.

Getting in

Which purchases include the beta?

Three of them, all sold as upgrades to an existing World of Warcraft account:

• Skyborne Epic Pack, $59.99 US, on the Battle.net Shop.
• Warcraft Forever Collection, $79.99 US, on the Battle.net Shop through January 11, 2027.
• Collector’s Edition, physical, from the Blizzard Gear Store, which includes a Warcraft Forever Collection code.

The Skyborne Heroic Pack at $29.99 does not include the beta. What each one contains beyond the beta is in the edition guide.

Is there a free way in?

Yes, without a guarantee. Blizzard’s support article says you can sign up on the official World of Warcraft website, that signing up “does not guarantee Beta access”, and that the sign-up page “is only available while testing is active or shortly before testing starts”. Its beta-live post adds two things: invitations to opted-in players go out regularly throughout the test, and later in the test the servers open to everyone for a few hours, a Server Slam, on a date to be announced Confirmed Blizzard. If you think you were invited, Blizzard’s advice is to log in to your Battle.net account and check for a World of Warcraft: Forever beta licence under Your Game Accounts rather than trust an email.

I bought the Epic Pack or the Collection. Do I need a code?

No. Blizzard flags the account automatically; there is nothing to redeem. If access is missing, check your Battle.net transaction history: the order has to show as Complete, because a failed order grants nothing. A gifted upgrade flags the recipient’s account, not the buyer’s.

I bought the Collector’s Edition. How does beta access arrive?

As a code, emailed with redemption instructions to the address you used on the Gear Store. Blizzard’s terms for it: the code needs a WoW game account, one redemption per game account, and it cannot be redeemed on an account that already has beta access. Customer Support will not replace a lost code or move one redeemed on the wrong account. One buyer reports the code email arrived about an hour after purchase, filed under Gmail’s Promotions tab. Community Blizzard forums

Can I still buy in after September 17?

Blizzard has set no cut-off. The Epic Pack and the Collection stay on sale, the Collection through January 11, 2027, and the shop lists the beta as running through October 21. Every day you wait is a day less of it, which is the whole calculation.

Does the beta need a subscription or Game Time?

Blizzard has not said. The requirement it has published, “a subscription or game time is required to play World of Warcraft: Forever”, is the Battle.net Shop’s line about the live game from November 4, and the Epic Pack’s 30 days of Game Time are added at launch, not before. We will confirm from inside the beta on September 17 and update this answer.

Can a friend get me in?

Not into the beta. The Invite-A-Friend Launch Codes that come with the paid editions grant an eligible friend access to Forever during launch week, November 4 through 11, and they are emailed from October 20. Nothing Blizzard has published shares beta access.

I have more than one WoW account. Which one gets the beta?

For the Collector’s Edition code, the account you redeem it on, once. For a digital upgrade, Blizzard says “your account will automatically be flagged”, and has not said how that resolves when a Battle.net account holds several WoW licenses. If this matters to you, buy on the account you play on and keep the receipt.

Playing it

How do I install the beta?

Through the Battle.net desktop app, which is required along with a Battle.net account and an internet connection. Blizzard Support says the beta client becomes available for installation there once testing begins. If you do not see it, close the app, restart it, and make sure you are logged in with the account that holds the access. Customer Support does not provide technical assistance with the beta client, so the forums are the place for install problems.

Do I pick a realm? How do names work?

There is no realm list in Forever. Blizzard’s Deep Dive recap has players choose a ruleset instead: Normal, PvP, Roleplaying, or Hardcore after launch Confirmed Blizzard, and you play with everyone on that ruleset. The September 17 live Q&A filled in the rest: battlegrounds are the one activity shared between rulesets, and moving a character to another ruleset needs a character transfer Confirmed Wowhead liveblog.

Every character has a two-part name. The second name is required, and a full name is unique across the whole region and cannot be reused on another ruleset Confirmed Wowhead liveblog, so a name is held once per region. That matters for Early Name Reservation: the name you reserve is the full one.

All of this describes the game. Which rulesets the beta offers, and whether beta names mean anything afterward, are things we are checking from inside.

What level cap and zones are in the beta?

The cap is now 30. The October 1 beta build raised it from 20 to 30 and opened three more dungeons: Excavation Site: Wetlands, one of Forever’s new ones, for levels 26 to 31, Razorfen Downs from 25 and Uldaman from 30, alongside the eleven already open Confirmed Blizzard; our news entry lists them. It is the step Blizzard set out the day the beta opened: a cap of 20 at the start, rising to 30 later in the test, with the Skyborne and Zephras Isle, the Hall of Thanes at levels 13 to 18, the Ruins of Lordaeron at 15 to 20 and every zone up to level 20 in week one, and more zones, dungeons and the new battleground to open as the beta continues Confirmed Blizzard. What the finished game contains is on Everything we know; every zone of the original world is indexed under Zones, and what the beta changes lands there row by row.

Will my beta characters be wiped? Do they carry to launch?

Blizzard has not said. Its Collector’s Edition terms say beta “benefits expire after the applicable access period of September 17 through October 21”, and nothing published suggests characters, gold or names carry into the live game. Assume they do not. The one thing that does persist before launch is Early Name Reservation, October 27 through November 3, for paid editions.

Is there an NDA? Can I stream it?

Blizzard has published no NDA, embargo or streaming rule for this beta, and its beta is playable on the BlizzCon show floor already. That is not the same as a written yes. We will read the client’s terms on September 17 and update this answer either way.

Will my graphics card run it?

Probably, but check. At launch Forever drops support for GPUs older than AMD Graphics Core Next 1 (2012), NVIDIA Maxwell (2014) and Intel Skylake (2015) Confirmed Blizzard, because its new lighting relies on a compute-shader feature those generations introduced. Blizzard’s examples of cards that will work include the Radeon HD 7850, the GeForce GTX 750 and 900 series and Intel HD Graphics 530; examples that will not are the Radeon HD 6950 and the GeForce GTX 760, 770 and 780. Windows shows your card under Settings, System, Display, Advanced display. The full requirements are on the Battle.net Shop.

Can I lose beta access?

Yes. Blizzard revokes beta access for Code of Conduct violations, and Customer Support cannot restore it, grant it, or help with a code redeemed on the wrong account.

Where do I report bugs and give feedback?

The WoW: Forever Beta Discussion forum, which Blizzard opened on September 17 under its In Development category. Kaivax’s known-issues list lives there and is updated as bugs are fixed or added, so read it before reporting; our entry summarises day one’s. Whether the client has an in-game feedback tool is still a check from inside.

Which regions and languages does the beta cover?

For the beta, Blizzard has not said, and the beta forums it refers to are English only. For the game, it has. Forever is realmless but not regionless: Oceanic players are hosted on Oceanic datacenters and share the US-wide auction house, and when a group spans datacenters the game picks the one that suits the whole group Confirmed Wowhead liveblog, so playing with friends overseas can mean higher ping. Ion Hazzikostas told But Why Tho? that the new server infrastructure does not connect regions, and updates roll out region by region around weekly resets and off-peak hours Confirmed But Why Tho?. We will report the beta’s regions and the client languages from inside.

After the beta

What happens when the beta closes?

The beta closes for good at 10:00 a.m. PDT on October 23. Then, in order: Early Name Reservation from October 27 through November 3 for paid editions, up to three characters per account, first come first served; launch on November 4 at 3:00 p.m. PST, included with a subscription or Game Time; the Epic Pack’s and the Collection’s 30 days of Game Time added at launch; and Invite-A-Friend codes valid from November 4 through 11.

I bought a digital pack and now want the Collector’s Edition. Do I pay twice?

Not if you redeem the Collector’s Edition code before December 31, 2027. Blizzard credits the price of a full digital edition back as Battle.net Balance automatically. A partial upgrade, such as Heroic to Epic, is not credited automatically and needs a Customer Support ticket, and owning Warcraft III: Reforged earns no discount or credit.

What we are still checking

Each of these is a “Blizzard has not said” above. This is where the answer will come from.

• Whether the beta needs a subscription or Game Time. Logging in on day one.
• Which rulesets the beta offers. The character creation screen.
• Wipes and character copy. Blizzard’s beta forum post, if one comes.
• NDA or streaming rules. The client’s terms on day one.
• An in-game feedback tool. The forum exists; whether the client has a tool as well is a check from inside.
• Regions and languages in the beta. The login screen and the client’s language list.
• The free sign-up page. Wowhead reports a Beta Opt-In button on the game’s Battle.net page as of September 13, and Blizzard says invitations go out in waves; we confirm and link the page when we have used it.

Anything that changes lands in the changelog below, with the date.