Wrath of the Lich King Classic release date briefly appears on Blizzard's website

The Lich King from WoW points a sword to the screen
(Image credit: Blizzard)

A release date for Wrath of the Lich King Classic has seemingly been posted on Blizzard's website by accident. 

As spotted by the folks at Wowhead.com, Blizzard recently updated the official website for Wrath of the Lich King Classic with a launch date for the upcoming expansion. Yesterday, an image appeared on WoW Classic and displayed beneath it were the words, "The Lich King returns September 26, 2022".

But it seems that Blizzard didn't intend to make this information public, as it scrubbed the date from the site shortly after. Of course, this could be a genuine mistake, and not, in fact, when the expansion will launch, but it's more likely that the date is accurate and the developer didn't want to divulge it just yet. 

Wrath of the Lich King Classic is set to release sometime in 2022, and Blizzard has confirmed that access is included in your existing World of Warcraft subscription. If September is too long to wait, beta opt-ins are still open through the WoW Classic website. The developer is also doing things a little differently this time around as it's dropping its "no changes" philosophy, so be prepared for some deviations from the original Wrath of the Lich King when the new expansion drops. It turns out 2022 is the perfect time to be a World of Warcraft fan as Dragonflight is also launching later this year.  

World of Warcraft may be king, but there are still plenty of other great massively multiplayer role-playing experiences on offer. See them all in our guide to the best MMORPG games.

Anne-Marie Ostler
Freelance Writer

Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I've freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and GamesRadar+. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.