WoW: Did Blizzard Just Leak The War Within Release Date?

The newest in-production WoW expansion, The War Within, has done a lot to reinvigorate what was becoming a lethargic World of Warcraft community. While a successful Blizzon 2023 and a thriving SoD player base are carrying the collective spirits of WoW players everywhere, just how long must we truly wait until The War Within releases for modern WoW? Using past data, here's how we can predict the release date for the newest upcoming WoW expansion!

The War Within Test Realm:

The encrypted 11.0 War Within test build has officially hit Blizzard's internal testing realms. This means that the game is built and is indeed being played right now by Blizzard staff. Why is this such a crucial milestone? To explain, we must look back at the release schedules of previous expansions.

Blizzard's New Expansion Release Dates:

Generally speaking, WoW expansions tend to launch for the wider player base 7-8 months after encrypted builds hit the internal test servers. Here's a breakdown of previous expansion release cycles:

Dragonflight:

• Encrypted Dragonflight Build: April 22nd, 2022
• Dragonflight Alpha Begins: July 14th, 2022
• Release Date: November 28th, 2022 (7 months after internal testing)

Shadowlands:

• Encrypted Shadowlands Build: February 19th, 2020
• Shadowlands Alpha Begins: April 9th, 2020
• Release Date: November 23rd, 2020 (9 months after internal testing)

Shadowlands, it should be said, is a unique case in that the original planned release date was in fact October 26th, meaning it was supposed to be released 8 months after internal testing prior to its delay into November.

The War Within Release Date:

Following the patterns established above, here is our best forecast of The War Within's release schedule.

• Encrypted War Within Build: December 12th, 2023 (this is confirmed)
• Probable Alpha Testing Begins: February, 2024
• Probable Release Date: July/August, 2024

Despite feeling a long way away, WoW expansions have a way of creeping up on us, and with alpha testing for The War Within likely to begin (based on the prior 2 expansions) within the next few months, be prepared for some major changes for Azeroth.