In Thursday’s State of Azeroth stream, Blizzard revealed the 2026 content roadmap for World of Warcraft, giving players an idea of what to expect beyond the launch of the Midnight expansion on March 3
Jumping out immediately from the calenadar is a new content type: Labyrinths. These will be a supersized version of delves, the excellent soloable dungeons introduced in last expansion The War Within. Game director Ion Hazzikostas says they are inspired by “mega-dungeons,” the sprawling, multi-winged multiplayer dungeons that have been a part of WoW ever since the days of Dire Maul in the original release.
Labyrinths will be introduced in the 12.1.5 patch in fall 2026. Here’s the full roadmap for the year:
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
It’s looking like a busy year for modern WoW, post-Midnight. The expansion launch is followed by two minor updates in the spring, which will sustain the Midnight storyline with escalating void assaults, add a lighthearted hide-and-seek game called Prop Hunt, and introduce a standalone single-boss raid — part of an experimental drive toward smaller, more frequent raid formats.
The big 12.1, season 2 patch follows in summer with a new zone, raid, dungeon, delves, and a housing update. Between BlizzCon in September and the end of the year come Labyrinths, another raid, and a new standalone event mode from WoW‘s renegade live team that created the Remix and Plunderstorm modes.
Over on World of Warcraft Classic, things look a little quieter — at least at present. Anniversary servers will see the launch of the Burning Crusade expansion in February, followed by its updates through the rest of the year. Mists of Pandaria Classic will feature that expansion’s concluding phases, concluding in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, through spring and summer.
Blizzard didn’t announce anything new for Classic that might fill the hole left by the brilliant, but now rather static, Hardcore and Season of Discovery (although Chinese players will get Titan-Reforged Realms tailored to local playstyles). Executive producer Holly Longdale did hint that there is more to come, however. “That’s not all we’re cooking up,” she said. “I can say with confidence that all Classic players across the globe have a lot to look forward to.”
Ahead of all this, there’s a chance to try out (or return to) World of Warcraft for free this weekend. The Welcome Back Weekend runs from now until Sunday, Feb. 1.
