World of Warcraft Classic

Did You Know?

• The Burning Crusade Classic was announced after a March 2020 survey and released on June 1, 2021.
• Cataclysm Classic launched its pre-patch on April 30, 2024, adding Worgen and Goblin races, and the expansion officially launched on May 20, 2024.

Development

The option of Classic servers had been a long-standing request in the World of Warcraft community, as every expansion removed or replaced old content and introduced controversial or unwanted mechanics. For instance, The Burning Crusade removed the original level-60 version of Kazzak and all his unobtainable items, added flying mounts criticized for affecting world PvP, raised the level cap to 70 making level 60 content obsolete, and opened Paladin and Shaman classes to both factions. Wrath of the Lich King removed original versions of Naxxramas and Onyxia raids, added a Random Dungeon Finder tool that many felt spoiled the social aspect, and made UI improvements reducing the need to read quest descriptions. Blizzard repeatedly refused to create legacy servers; a February 21, 2008 post by Drysc stated that while internal discussion had occurred, the long-term interest could not justify the development and support resources required. Versions prior to The Burning Crusade were called "vanilla" by players, but Blizzard referred to them as "classic" as early as November 29, 2009, when Vaneras wrote that there were no plans to open classic realms or limited expansion content realms.

Mists of Pandaria Classic

In November 2024, during a 30th Anniversary livestream, Blizzard announced Mists of Pandaria Classic for summer 2025; beta sign-ups began in April 2025. It launched on July 21, 2025, introducing Celestial Dungeons as a replacement for Raid Finder, which was not implemented. The first raid tier had a staggered rollout of three raid instances, with each raid's loot table added to the Celestial Dungeon system. In September 2025, free character transfers consolidated players onto Mega Realms in each region. Phase 3 launched on December 9, 2025, adding the Isle of Thunder, Isle of Giants, and the Throne of Thunder raid opening December 11. A roadmap at the State of Azeroth event in early 2026 placed Phase 4 in Spring 2026 and Phase 5 in Summer 2026. The final Siege of Orgrimmar patch launched on June 2, 2026, adding the Timeless Isle, Legendary Cloak questline, Proving Grounds, and the Siege of Orgrimmar raid.

Classic Era and Seasonal Servers

Players could pay to copy existing characters to Classic Era servers or freely create new characters there. Seasonal Classic servers began in November 2021 with Season of Mastery, which introduced more challenging mechanics and an ironman mode; it concluded on February 14, 2023. Official Hardcore Classic servers launched on August 24, 2023, featuring permadeath and Mak'gora duels, inspired by a community using addons for an unofficial permadeath experience with additional restrictions. Dead characters cannot resurrect but can transfer to Classic Era realms. On February 29, 2024, a Self-Found Mode was added to Hardcore servers, preventing auction house use and mail sending or receiving; it is only available for new characters and cannot be re-enabled once turned off. Season of Discovery launched on November 30, 2023, introducing new content to the vanilla world, including rune-based class abilities and gated leveling starting at level 25.