World of Warcraft: Shadowlands release date revealed for late November

WoW Shadowlands
(Image credit: Blizzard)

The World of Warcraft: Shadowlands release date has been revealed after a delay pushed it back from October.

In a formal announcement on Twitter, Blizzard announced that Shadowlands will be released to the public on November 23 at 3pm PST. The expansion was initially announced in November 2019 and was first slated for a late October release. October 1 saw the team announcing that the release date would be moved to later in the year.

The World of Warcraft team took the time to thank the WoW community, including the beta testers and players who have been leveling up in the Shadowlands pre-patch. The announcement stated that the extra time has been used "to further polish the expansion and shore up the endgame, including overhauling the combat and rewards in the Maw, and reworking the Covenant systems to make your choice more immediately helpful and have clearer long-term goals."

The announcement also detailed that the pre-launch event will take place on November 10, and December 8 is marked as the date for the opening of the expansion's first raid, Castle Nathria. Its arrival will coincide with the beginning of Shadowlands season one. 

The expansion itself revolves around Sylvanas Windrunner piercing the veil between Azeroth and the realm of the dead, upsetting the cosmic balance between the two worlds. Players will be able to forge bonds with Covenants who rule over different planes in the Shadowlands, each offering unique new powers to wield.

Find out about all the changes to character classes and levelling in Shadowlands.

Freelance writer

Kai Delmare is a freelance journalist and news writer with bylines at GamesRadar+. During her time at GR, Kai focused on writing breaking gaming news and reporting on some of the biggest industry trends.