Following the April 19 announcement of the game’s next expansion and its release date, WoW fans will begin the slow march towards the launch of the franchise’s next chapter. The game’s current expansion, Shadowlands, saw a full year between its initial announcement in November 2019 and release date in November 2020. The previous expansion, Battle for Azeroth, featured a nine-month delay between its announcement and launch in August 2018.
The next WoW expansion, which will be the 10th edition of the game, could arrive before 2022 comes to a close, although the chances of the expansion arriving within the next eight months seem unlikely judging by Blizzard’s recent track record. Holiday 2022 would present a relatively tight and unprecedented deadline for Blizzard, especially if the WoW development team still has work to do on the next expansion.
The current patch of Shadowlands, Patch 9.2, will be the final major content patch of the expansion, although a minor patch, Patch 9.2.5, will arrive before the expansion ends. Additionally, another season of PvP and Mythic+ will begin later this year, according to Blizzard, indicating that Shadowlands could carry WoW into the beginning of 2023.
There are no firm details regarding the name, lore elements, or official release date of the next WoW expansion, although information should be expected to come to light when Blizzard officially announces the expansion on Tuesday, April 19.
