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Battle for Azeroth will launch one day early — but only in America

World of Warcraft is getting a simultaneous release for the first time ever

Blizzard Entertainment
Ryan Gilliam (he/him) has worked at Polygon for nearly seven years. He primarily spends his time writing guides for massively popular games like Diablo 4 & Destiny 2.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth will release simultaneously around the world on Aug. 14. For players who struggle with time zones, that means American players will actually be able to start playing on Aug. 13 — a full day early.

World of Warcraft expansions usually roll out first in Europe, leaving North American players to spend the night watching European streams of new expansions before a big release. Players won’t be doing that this time around, according to Blizzard. Battle for Azeroth will launch in all regions — the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, Korea and Australia/New Zealand — at 6 p.m. ET on Aug. 13.

The simultaneous launch is exciting, but players are already raising concerns over server stability. The sizeable launch could cause some big issues for dedicated players who want to log in and play.

Warlords of Draenor was plagued by server issues in its first few days when it launched in 2014, and players don’t seem eager to go through that again. Still, U.S. players are used to getting up at 2 or 3 in the morning to play the latest World of Warcraft expansion — you take the good with the bad.

We’ll have to wait and see how the servers hold up this time around. But for now, start strategically planning your sick day a little early.