World of Warcraft: The War Within Release Date Revealed

World of Warcraft: The War Within launches later this summer.

Last year, developer Blizzard took to the BlizzCon stage to reveal its ambitious new vision for the future of World of Warcraft expansions. Unlike the previous few decades, the team is now using its next trio of expansions to tell one long story they're calling The Worldsoul Saga. The event is kicking off with the first expansion The War Within, which entered its beta testing phase recently. At today's Xbox Showcase event, Blizzard dropped a lengthy new expansion trailer and finally revealed the official release for The War Within. It's coming sooner than you might've expected.

World of Warcraft: The War Within Release Date 

As mentioned, beta testing went live for The War Within a few weeks ago, so we knew that the expansion wasn't that far out. That said, the last two expansions dropped in November, so many assumed The War Within would follow a similar cadence. Instead, the team announced that the next expansion is due out on August 26th, meaning we're only a few short months from the start of The Worldsoul Saga.

Of course, it's worth noting that you can hop in a few days early if you decide to purchase the Epic Edition or the physical collector's edition. Those have been revealed previously, but if you missed the announcement, you'll get a Level 70 character boost, end-game ready game, 30 days of game time, and several other in-game goodies in addition to being able to hop in on August 23rd, a full three days early. The physical collector's edition includes all of that, a Gryphon Rider statue, an art book, and collector's pins for $180. 

Alongside the release date reveal, the team announced that it is now offering a new World of Warcraft bundle to celebrate the game's 20th anniversary. That event is coming up later this year, but you can pick up the bundle now to get the Dragonflight expansion, a Level 60 character boost, and 60 days of game time for only $25. If you've been sitting on the fence about diving back into World of Warcraft, that's a great way to check out the latest expansion. After all, two months of game time alone will run you $30, so this bundle is quite a deal.

World of Warcraft is available now on PC. The War Within launches on August 26th. Some were hoping this big trailer would end with Blizzard announcing the game for consoles. Unfortunately, that's not happening yet, though Blizzard has said several times over the last few months that it's thinking about the possibility "all the time." If it does happen, it's probably still a few years away.