When Does WoW TBC Anniversary Come Out? Release Date

WoW TBC Anniversary is already live: The Burning Crusade opened on the Classic 20th Anniversary realms on July 17, 2025. That was the day the Dark Portal opened and the level cap moved from 60 to 70. A pre-expansion patch landed a few weeks earlier, in late June 2025, adding Blood Elves, Draenei and the reworked talent trees. If you are searching for a release date in 2026, you are not waiting on anything — you can log in and go to Outland right now.

TBC Anniversary key facts

The important detail people miss: TBC Anniversary was not a fresh set of servers. It was a progression step for the Anniversary realms that launched in November 2024. Your level-60 character from that Classic phase simply kept going, the same way the original 2007 expansion worked.

Did the Anniversary realms replace Classic Era?

No. Classic Era realms are a separate, permanent home for people who want vanilla to stay vanilla. The Anniversary realms were always designed to advance through the old expansions in order, and Blizzard gave players on those realms a way to keep a copy of a character in the Era ruleset before the move if they preferred to stay at 60.

So there are two answers to "where do I play TBC?": on the Anniversary realms, where it is the current expansion, and nowhere else at the moment — the earlier Burning Crusade Classic servers from 2021 progressed into Wrath and then Cataclysm years ago.

What did the TBC Anniversary pre-patch include?

The pre-patch is the part most people remember being short. In those few weeks you could roll a Blood Elf or Draenei and level them in Azeroth, respec into the Burning Crusade talent trees, and learn Jewelcrafting. Paladins and Shamans opened up to both factions through the new races. Outland itself, flying, heroics and the level-70 cap stayed locked until July 17.

Compared with the 2021 Burning Crusade Classic run, which had a pre-patch of roughly the same length, the pacing was familiar. The difference is that this time the population was already sitting on the Anniversary realms rather than being copied over from Era.

Is it too late to start TBC Anniversary in 2026?

Not really, but be realistic about where you are landing. The realms are more than a year into the expansion, so most established guilds are deep into the later raid tiers rather than clearing Karazhan for the first time. On the plus side, the starter dungeons and early heroics are heavily farmed, gear from earlier phases is easier to get, and the leveling zones in Outland still see traffic from alts.

Plan on roughly 60 to 70 as a solid week or two of casual play, then a heroic and reputation grind before you are raid-ready. Attunements were softened in later phases, which helps a late starter enormously.

What comes after TBC on the Anniversary realms?

Blizzard has said the Anniversary realms will continue forward, with Wrath of the Lich King as the next stop. A firm date for that step has not been confirmed in anything I can point to, so treat any specific Wrath Anniversary date you see as speculation until it appears in an official post. Historically Blizzard gives a few months of notice before a progression jump.

Quick timeline recap

1. November 2024 — Classic 20th Anniversary realms open (level 60 content).
2. Late June 2025 — TBC pre-expansion patch: new races, talents, Jewelcrafting.
3. July 17, 2025 — Dark Portal opens, level 70, Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon.
4. Late 2025 onward — further raid phases through Black Temple, Zul'Aman and Sunwell.
5. Next — Wrath of the Lich King, date not yet confirmed.

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