Reception

0:00 The first reactions to World of Warcraft: Forever followed its reveal at BlizzCon 2026 on Sep 12, 2026: from reporters, from creators who played BlizzCon builds, and from creators reacting to the panels. Forever has not been released, so these are first impressions rather than reviews; the beta opened on Sep 17 and launch is on Nov 4, 2026. Among the reactions collected here, creators welcomed a permanent level 60 version of the original world and the amount of new content, while the Skyborne race sitting in a paid pack, and changes some felt make the game less like Classic, drew criticism. GameSpot, after its hands-on session, said there is "a lot more here than I think a lot of people are expecting", and that it "feels more like a new game than even Season of Discovery".

Quick facts

Press

Kotaku's Rebekah Valentine, reporting the reveal on Sep 12, presented Forever as WoW's long-rumored "Classic+" and wrote that its Nov 4 release date was "sooner than I think anyone expected". Game Informer's report the same day, by Alex Van Aken, listed the new zones, the 1,000 new quests across levels 1 to 60, the dungeons, raids and graphics upgrades in straight news style. It described the Skyborne as a neutral elven race; Blizzard says players choose Horde or Alliance when they create a Skyborne character.

1:47 GameSpot's video preview from BlizzCon gave five takeaways. On the visuals, with modern WoW's HD character models switched on alongside the new lighting, Forever "doesn't look like WoW Classic. It looks like a new game. It's very impressive."

4:17 GameSpot also found the game "surprisingly customisable", with built-in quest help and transmog "for the first time in classic". It expected that "a lot of WoW Classic purists will maybe scoff at some of those ideas", and pointed out that they can switch the features off, including other players' transmog.

5:34 Its summary: Forever should feel more accessible to players coming from modern WoW while keeping "that classic kind of slower-paced gameplay", "a surprising blend of old and new".

"Classic Plus is real"

10:30 WillE opened his summary of the first day with "Classic Plus is real". Whatever he thought of the details, he said, the biggest thing for him was "a new version of World of Warcraft that was permanent and was going to remain at level 60", and Forever is "very much going to be the new home for classic players".

0:00 720 Zone found it "a much larger game and project than I anticipated". He had expected an offshoot on the Classic Era client, like Season of Discovery, "but no, this is a brand new game built from the ground up".

14:45 MadSeasonShow, who now plays mostly Old School RuneScape, singled out Blizzard's promise of horizontal progression at level 60, one of the main reasons he moved to that game, and said World of Warcraft "could use some work in maintaining the value in player progression".

2:06 The optional systems drew praise. 720 Zone called Forever's transmog "really well thought through" and liked that each player can opt in or out; he later gave both transmog and the Legacy system a "W".

Hands on at BlizzCon

3:12 Xaryu, creating a character in a BlizzCon build, was delighted by the new race: "I'm a Skyborne main, right? Are you kidding me? I love elves." Moments later he found the checkbox for HD models: "Oh, thank goodness this is here."

18:33 He was less keen on parts of the interface. If the game launches with modern WoW's cast bar and nameplates, he said, "I'm 100% getting an add-on" for Classic-style ones, though he liked the action bars and the map.

6:01 Sodapoppin, gearing a level 38 Skyborne druid for the Drowned City, kept stopping to read the items: casters "actually get weapon upgrades while leveling", he noted, and the gear was "nuts".

42:14 His group wiped on one boss about eight times, and he could not tell whether it was overtuned or the group was playing badly. Asked whether he was still enjoying himself, he answered: "I'm loving it."

54:05 He also defended a change he expected Classic purists to dislike. In-game pings are "definitely a retail thing", he said, "and I think it's a good change"; they are not Classic and take away some communication, but players would have to find a way to cope, "cuz this is it".

1:22:25 Guzu, asked on the Creator Showcase stage for honest feedback on the Rogue, said "the rogue feels fun" and that many Rogue specs look set to work in PvE and PvP, but that he misses the old resource ticks: "I definitely do miss the tick."

The Skyborne and the paid packs

0:40 GameSpot's second takeaway was the Skyborne: "basically blood elves, but a little different", with "a little more wind elemental flare", and with "a price tag associated" with them. The race comes only with the optional upgrades described on Upgrades and Editions.

9:13 WillE warned that putting the race and beta access "behind a purchase price" could set "a precedent" for how Blizzard sells future races or classes in Forever, and expected players to receive it less well than paid expansions in modern WoW. MadSeasonShow called the Skyborne "quite controversial".

1:05:58 The race's strength drew comment too. Sodapoppin, comparing racials, rated the Skyborne's haste and bonus damage against elementals poorly next to the other races and said Blizzard "honestly should buff it".

Hopes and worries

1:28 720 Zone was concerned that so much of the trade skills, talents and gear is "described as overhauled". For him Classic+ should mean "we never take anything away from the players": "plus, not classic minus".

15:18 Tiqqle, going through the Shaman talent trees a day after the reveal, found talents drawn from The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and later expansions, and concluded: "I don't think this is really classic plus. I think this is just a new version of WoW." He asked Blizzard for a toggle to a Classic-style interface, warning that the new one is "too modern".

1:07 He also noted that "everyone said classic plus and everyone meant different things", which he felt Blizzard had acknowledged at BlizzCon. Blizzard had joked about exactly that: on the What's Next panel Clay Stone played a clip of a player whose survey about Classic+ proved "nobody knows what they want".

6:56 720 Zone, a Hardcore player, argued that because Blizzard is choosing to build Hardcore into a new game, rather than adding it after players begged, it has "much more of an obligation to make the game work", including some protection against deaths caused by disconnects. Hardcore is due after launch.

The beta

The beta's first days drew as much attention as the reveal. PC Gamer's Tyler Colp reported on Sep 17 that players were "reliving 2004 with hour-long queue times"; the next day GamesRadar's Dustin Bailey wrote that the developers "seem genuinely shocked the beta is so popular", quoting Josh Greenfield's "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard" and Tom Ellis's explanation of why the servers broke. GameSpot's Cameron Koch reported on Sep 28 that Blizzard had raised the population cap several times and that executive producer Holly Longdale said it was "setting records", adding that "Forever's launch is shaping up to be a doozy".

Three debates ran through the test. The Skyborne divided players, mostly over their blue skin and HD models in a standard-definition world, until Blizzard promised standard-definition Skyborne for early 2027 on Oct 7. Experience from dungeons, which many testers found too low after early changes, led Blizzard to raise it by about 20% on Oct 8 while saying grinding dungeons should not be the best way to level (see Dungeons). And gold buying: Blizzard banned thousands of accounts in the beta, warned of permanent closures and confirmed that GDKP raids will not be allowed (see Beta).

The beta's biggest community story was a guild. The streamer Asmongold's Olympus guilds set out to hold the majority of Forever's players and, by his count, passed 70,000 members; Sodapoppin called its members "very spammy", players on Reddit and the WoW forums asked Blizzard to act, and Asmongold answered that the allegations that he wants everyone in Olympus are "true".

Frequently asked questions

Has World of Warcraft: Forever been reviewed? No. It launches on Nov 4, 2026; the reactions on this page come from the reveal, the panels, BlizzCon builds and the beta.

How popular is the beta? Blizzard has not published numbers, but the first day brought hour-long queues, Josh Greenfield called it "the craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard", and Blizzard raised the population cap several times.

Why is the Skyborne race controversial? It comes only with paid upgrade packs, while the rest of Forever is included with a subscription. WillE thought it could set a precedent; GameSpot pointed out that the pack is optional.

Do creators think Forever is Classic+? Views differ. WillE opened his video with "Classic Plus is real", 720 Zone called it "a brand new game built from the ground up", and Tiqqle said he did not think it is really Classic+.

What did people like after playing it? GameSpot praised the visuals and the option to turn features off, Sodapoppin said he was "loving it" and singled out the gear, and Guzu found the Rogue fun.

Sources

• World of Warcraft: Forever players are reliving 2004 with hour-long queue times to get into the highly-anticipated beta, PC Gamer, Sep 17, 2026
• "The craziest numbers I've seen in 17 years working at Blizzard": WoW Forever devs seem genuinely shocked the beta is so popular as they explain why their MMO servers keep breaking, GamesRadar+, Sep 18, 2026
• WoW: Forever's Beta Just Keeps Getting Bigger, GameSpot, Sep 28, 2026
• World of Warcraft: Forever- The Future of Skyborne Visual Updates, Blizzard Entertainment, Oct 7, 2026
• Actions Taken Against Botting and RMT, Blizzard Entertainment (Kaivax), World of Warcraft forums, Oct 1, 2026
• World Of Warcraft: Forever Revealed As WoW's Rumored Classic+, Kotaku, Sep 12, 2026
• Blizzard Announces World Of Warcraft: Forever, Expanding Vanilla WoW With New Zones, Raids, 1,000 New Quests, Game Informer, Sep 12, 2026
• World of Warcraft: Forever What's Next Panel Recap, Blizzard Entertainment, September 2026
• WoW Forever Preview Impressions | Blizzcon 2026, GameSpot, Sep 14, 2026 (video)
• Classic+ Is FINALLY Here! | Warcraft Forever, WillE, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• WoW Forever Deep Dive: What I Like and What Worries Me, 720 Zone, Sep 14, 2026 (video)
• World of Warcraft: Forever - Everything We Know, MadSeasonShow, Sep 14, 2026 (video)
• Xaryu's First Time ACTUALLY Playing WoW Forever, Xaryu, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• Sodapoppin Actually Plays WoW Forever for the First Time!, Sodapoppin, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• WoW Forever Shaman Talents Are HERE! | All 3 Specs First Reaction, Tiqqle, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• World of Warcraft: Forever - Creator Showcase | BlizzCon 2026, World of Warcraft, Sep 13, 2026 (video)