WoW Forever Beta Has Ended: Close Time, Name Reservation, and Launch

The beta closed on October 23

Blizzard closed the WoW Forever beta at 10:00 a.m. PDT on Friday, October 23, 2026.

PDT is US Pacific Daylight Time.

Blizzard’s EU forum gave the same moment as 19:00 CEST, Central European Summer Time.

By our conversion, that was 02:00 KST on Saturday, October 24, in Korea.

Community manager Kaivax confirmed the close in a forum post right after it.

The post thanks players for five weeks of playtesting, bug reports, and feedback.

Blizzard had said on October 20 that the beta would close for good at that time.

The beta is closed for everyone, so not being able to log in is expected.

Blizzard is now spending a few days on priority issues and the game service.

It wants the game in good shape for launch day on November 4.

Next: character creation on October 27, launch on November 4

Blizzard’s closing post says character creation opens on Tuesday, October 27.

That is the start of Early Name Reservation, which runs October 27 through November 3.

Blizzard’s October 20 Name Reservation post lists the start times by region.

North America opens at 1:00 p.m. PDT and Europe at 18:00 CET on October 27.

Korea and Taiwan open at 07:00 local time on October 28.

You choose a Ruleset first, then create characters and pick their names.

You can reserve names for up to three characters in total across all Rulesets.

Names are first come, first served, and Blizzard says desired names cannot be guaranteed.

The closing post does not repeat who is eligible; the October 20 post does.

It comes with pre-purchasing the Skyborne Heroic Pack or Skyborne Epic Pack.

The limited-time Warcraft Forever Collection includes it too.

WoW Forever launches on November 4, 2026, at 3:00 p.m. PST.

From then on, your World of Warcraft Subscription or Game Time gives access.

Blizzard says the WoW Forever Podcast continues next week.

The closing post, listed in the sources below, links every episode so far.

Install for Name Reservation from the Game Version menu

The beta was installed from the Game Version menu above Play, under In Development.

Early Name Reservation uses the same menu, per Blizzard’s news post.

Update your graphics drivers and the Battle.net desktop app first.

Select World of Warcraft, then choose World of Warcraft: Forever in the Game Version menu.

Select Install, then Play once installation completes, and choose your Ruleset.

You can then create up to 3 characters with the names you want.

Check your account, not email links

Name Reservation and launch news creates openings for phishing messages.

Instead of an email link, open Battle.net directly and check your game accounts.

An email alone is not proof that anything was added to your account.

Never enter passwords or authentication codes on an external page.

Start any installation only from the Battle.net desktop app.

The 24-hour farewell celebration

Blizzard ran a one-time celebration for the beta’s final 24 hours.

It brought chaos to seven zones until the beta closed on October 23.

The zones were Zephras Isle, Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, and Teldrassil.

Durotar, Tirisfal Glades, and Mulgore were part of it too.

Blizzard invited testers to log in one last time and visit one of those zones.

Blizzard called it a one-time-only event.

It almost certainly included items and experiences that will not be in the launched game.

The October 21 Stress Test

Blizzard ran the WoW Forever Stress Test on October 21 on the hardware planned for launch.

It was first announced for October 19; Blizzard moved it on October 16.

Anyone with a WoW account could join, with no subscription or beta access.

Blizzard’s October 20 schedule listed 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. PDT in North America.

Europe was scheduled from 19:00 to 03:00 CEST, overnight into October 22.

Korea’s window was 06:00 to 10:00 KST on October 22.

The beta was offline during the test and reopened afterward.

Blizzard said all characters and names on the Stress Test servers would be deleted.

Bringing the beta back hit a snag on the evening of October 21, US Pacific time.

Blizzard said fully exiting the Battle.net desktop app forces the update and speeds it up.

How beta access worked

While it ran, the beta had two ways in: a free opt-in or an eligible bundle.

Opting in only gave a chance to be selected; it did not guarantee entry.

Blizzard said invitations would go out regularly throughout the beta.

If selected, access was flagged on your account and an email invitation followed.

Eligible World of Warcraft: Forever digital bundles included beta access.

That access attached to the Battle.net account that bought the bundle.

It could take up to 30 minutes to appear; restarting the Battle.net app could help.

A Recruit A Friend launch code is a launch-week benefit, not a beta license.

With the beta closed, neither route leads into it any more.

What the beta covered by the end

The beta opened with a level cap of 20.

Its first dungeons were Hall of Thanes (levels 13–18) and Ruins of Lordaeron (15–20).

The October 1 build raised the level cap to 30.

It added a new dungeon, Excavation Site: Wetlands, for levels 26–31.

Razorfen Downs (25+) and Uldaman (30+) joined 11 dungeons that were already open.

Darnassus and Thunder Bluff also got barbershops.

The October 8 build opened the new City of Dalaran dungeon for testing.

It also gave every beta player a completed Legacy Challenge worth 16 Legacy points.

Blizzard said it expected to keep that grant in place until the beta ended.

16 points is also the per-character spending cap Blizzard announced for launch.

Beta numbers and content can change before launch.