World of Warcraft: The War Within Release Window Announced

BlizzCon 2023 was the first time host Blizzard Entertainment was able to hold an in-person conference for its fans since the start of COVID-19. Because of that, the developer did its best to roll out the red carpet and deliver several big announcements. One of the biggest things revealed at the event was that the World of Warcraft team is currently working on three connecting expansions. World of Warcraft: The War Within is the first on the docket, and while we already knew the expansion was coming in 2024, Blizzard posted a new roadmap for the coming year that narrows down that release window even further.

World of Warcraft: The War Within Release Window

The Worldsoul Saga begins in 2024!

Our cadence continues in the year ahead with six content updates plus the new expansion, The War Within.

EP @TheWindstalker on the road ahead: https://t.co/OWi2ix0evF pic.twitter.com/ZDAt5lEmRG

— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) December 19, 2023

While it's not a firm date, the new roadmap suggests that World of Warcraft: The War Within will launch sometime around the end of next summer or the beginning of the fall. The infographic doesn't list any firm dates, so it's impossible to narrow it down any more than that. That said, it's worth noting that The War Within alpha is set to launch after the Seeds of Renewal 10.2.5 patch, which is expected to drop in late January 2024. If the Alpha comes out in February, we're looking at a beta a few months after that, which would put The War Within's 1.0 version out around August, assuming there are no development setbacks. 

For reference, the last two expansions dropped in November, but both Legion and Battle for Azeroth came out in August. With that in mind, anywhere between August and November would make sense, though Blizzard has curiously never released an expansion during October. Either way, the roadmap says The War Within will be out before World of Warcraft's 20th-anniversary event, which is in late November 2024. Therefore, unless something catastrophic happens, we won't have another Cataclysm-like December release on our hands.

World of Warcraft 2024 Roadmap

Obviously, The War Within release window is the big news out of this roadmap. However, it's far from the other only thing Blizzard has revealed in its roadmap. We already knew most of the details about patch 10.2.5, which includes the Dragon Isles Epilogues, Reclamation of Gilneas, and Follower Dungeons, among other additions. In the spring, we'll also be getting the start of Season 4 and patch 10.2.7, which includes new Harbringer quests and Troll and Dranei Heritage Armor. 

The update also gave us a look at where WoW Classic is going in 2024. With Cataclysm set to launch at the beginning of next summer, players have tons to look forward to. There will be four new Seasons of Discovery, with the final one of 2024 adding "end game content" to Classic. Plus, Hardcore players are getting the new Self-Found mode to make the popular mode even more deadly.

World of Warcraft and WoW Classic are both available now on PC.