World of Warcraft (WoW) Subscription Cost (2024 Price Guide) - Arcane Intellect (2024)

An overview of how much it costs to start playing World of Warcraft Classic, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, or Dragonflight in 2024.

Since its release in 2004, World of Warcraft (WoW) has released 9 expansions! Fortunately, as a new or returning player, you don’t need to buy each of these updates and games individually. So, what expansions do you need to buy? How much does it cost to start playing WoW?

In short, you can begin playing WoW Classic and all content up through the 8^th expansion (Shadowlands) for the price of a monthly subscription. In the U.S., this will cost you $14.99/month for a single month, $41.97 for 3 months, or $77.94 for a 6-month commitment. If you want to play the current expansion — World of Warcraft: Dragonflight — you will need to purchase it for $29.99 or pre-order The War Within (expansion #10), which starts at $49.99.

I’ll untangle all those options below, but first, if you haven’t checked out the Dragonflight cinematic, I’ve embedded it below.

If you decide to purchase the game, make sure to check out my ultimate guide for new World of Warcraft players!

WoW subscription costs in the United States

When you purchase longer subscription lengths, you get a lower price per month, but you have to pay upfront. Each tier you move up lowers the per-month price by $1.

So, if you opted to get two 6-month subscriptions (or the full-year sub), you would save $24 per year. Also, you would receive a couple of in-game rewards (typically mounts or transmog) reserved for players with a 6-month or 12-month subscription.

WoW subscription costs in Canada and the U.K.

The prices I quoted above only apply to players in the United States, where I live. If you are from another country, there is a good chance that your costs will be slightly different.

For example, players in Canada will pay a somewhat higher per-month price, even after the exchange rate. In 2024, WoW subscription costs in Canada are as follows:

In contrast, the price of subscriptions is slightly lower after the exchange rate for players in the U.K. For those of you in the U.K., you can expect to pay the following amounts if you are interested in playing WoW:

All of the prices mentioned to this point are for players who set up recurring subscriptions on their accounts. This requires that you provide a credit card that will be charged on the renewal date. If you aren’t interested in setting up a recurring subscription, there are a few other options…

Alternatives to reoccurring subscriptions

The first alternative to a recurring subscription is to purchase 60 days of game time. You can do this through your Battle.net launcher shop or through the online Blizzard Shop. When purchased, it will grant you 2 months of game time and will set you back $29.99. Your time expires at the end of the 60 days, and you would need to purchase additional time to continue playing.

As a side note, you can also gift game time to your friends with this approach.

Another alternative to a recurring subscription is to purchase your game time with WoW tokens. Unfortunately, this method requires that you have active game time on your account and the ability/time to make a decent amount of in-game gold.

To get a WoW token, you will need to farm up gold and buy one at the auction house. The token price will depend on how many tokens are available on the auction house, so I can’t give you an exact gold price here.

If you are interested in how much gold you would need, you can look on the A.H. or in the shop tab of your in-game menu. You could also look it up online as well.

The final alternative to a recurring subscription is to subscribe and then immediately cancel. While this still requires you to provide a credit card, it will ensure that you avoid that surprise charge if you forget to cancel.

Purchasing WoW Dragonflight in 2024

Chances are you landed on this article because you are looking to play World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. If so, you can buy your copy now for $29.99 USD.

As another option, you can also purchase Dragonflight as part of the pre-order for The War Within — World of Warcraft’s 10th expansion that releases later this year.

Pre-Ordering The War Within (Includes Dragonflight)

If you haven’t bought Dragonflight yet and you are in it for the long-haul, the best way to buy the expansion is by pre-ordering The War Within. In addition to getting access to Dragonflight and the next expansion, you’ll also get other goodies like a character boost and currency for the trading post.

Here are the three pre-order options available on Blizzard’s website right now:

And here is the announce trailer for The War Within if you are interested!

How much does WoW Classic/WotLK Classic cost?

Perhaps you are interested in WoW because you want to play Classic. Let’s talk about how much that will set you back.

Basically, it will cost you the monthly membership price if you want to play WoW Classic or Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) Classic. In the U.S., this means that it would run you $14.99/month. However, suppose you are planning on playing for longer than a month. In that case, you can benefit from purchasing the longer subscription time for a lower per-month price.

How much does WoW Hardcore/Season of Discovery (SOD) cost?

Hardcore is a special game mode where you get “one-life,” so when your character dies, you have to start all over if you want to keep playing. The official Hardcore servers are part of the WoW Classic Era version of the game, so it will cost you $14.99/month to play Hardcore mode (unless you purchase a longer subscription).

You can also play Season of Discovery as part of that same subscription price. This fun twist on vanilla/Classic WoW allows you to find runes that dramatically change how your character plays. Mages that heal? Warlocks that tank?

That means that for the price of one subscription, you can play five versions of the game — retail, WoW Classic, Hardcore, Season of Discover, and Wrath of the Lich King Classic!

Is there any way to play WoW for free?

If you are looking to try out World of Warcraft but aren’t ready to buy yet, you can play a free trial. This trial allows you to create and play a new character to level 20 in the game’s retail version. However, the free version comes with many restrictions, including ones on the amount of gold you can have, content you can play, and social interaction.

There is no free trial of WoW Classic or Wrath of the Lich King Classic.

Regardless, it is an excellent way for new players to try the game. If you need help getting started with the free version, you can check out my article on playing World of Warcraft for free.

Final Thoughts

While a lot of World of Warcraft content has been released since 2004, you don’t need to buy all of the past expansions. Except for Dragonflight, every version of the game can be played by signing up for a subscription or using a game time card. Dragonflight can be purchased now! If you are a new player or just want to dabble with a low-level character, you can play World of Warcraft for free.

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