Blizzard Entertainment expanded the server capacity of World of Warcraft: Forever following a surge in player demand during the closed beta test. The technical adjustment marks the second infrastructure upgrade within ten days as incoming traffic created login queues across regional realms.
Holly Longdale, executive producer and vice president of World of Warcraft at Blizzard, confirmed the change on Sunday (27). “So… we had to increase the WoW: Forever Beta population cap again. The wild ride continues,” she stated on social media.
Read also: Blizzard confirms Diablo V for 2029 with major expansion plans
World of Warcraft: Forever tests draw historic player volume
Josh Greenfield, a senior game designer at Blizzard working on the project, noted that the influx of participants set internal records. Greenfield described the activity as “the craziest numbers I’ve seen in 17 years working at Blizzard and almost 8 years on classic.” The previous historic high-water mark for the franchise occurred roughly 17 years ago, when the Wrath of the Lich King expansion propelled World of Warcraft to a peak of 12 million paying subscribers worldwide.
The current adjustment follows an initial capacity raise on September 18, 2026, which the team executed after immediate overcrowding during the opening hours of the testing phase.
Keep reading: StarCraft shooter enters production at Blizzard for 2030 launch
Skyborne Epic Pack pricing and beta schedule
Entry to the ongoing closed test requires the purchase of the Skyborne Epic Pack, which sells for US$ 59.99, £ 51.99, and € 59.99. Blizzard established an initial level cap of 20 for characters during this stage. Any character progression achieved by participants throughout the trial will be erased when the servers close, leaving buyers with only character name reservations for the full commercial release. When World of Warcraft: Forever launches officially, players with an active monthly subscription will not need to purchase the game separately.
Learn more: Blizzard announces Diablo 5 with release scheduled for 2029
- September 17, 2026: official start of the closed beta test
- Sunday, September 27, 2026: second server capacity expansion announced
- October 21, 2026: scheduled conclusion of the closed beta phase
- November 4, 2026: global official release of the title
Classic Plus design and unconfirmed player figures
Announced as the final reveal of the BlizzCon 2026 opening ceremony, World of Warcraft: Forever serves as a reimagining of the original online role-playing game under a Classic Plus design concept. Senior producer Tom Ellis and the development team have focused this stage on stress-testing realms under heavy population loads.
Blizzard has not released official figures detailing the exact number of concurrent players connected to the servers or the total volume of Skyborne Epic Pack bundles sold to date.
Testing will continue across all updated realms until the scheduled shutdown on October 21, 2026, leading into the complete commercial launch set for November 4, 2026.