When is the Warcraft Rumble release date? November 3! (But you may already be able to log in and play in the US)

News for the renamed Warcraft Rumble has been starting to pick up, with soft launches in several countries already happening. Pre-registration for the app on the Google Play Store has been live for awhile now, and now you can pre-register on the Apple App store with both sites providing a bonus for doing so. While it was initially announced that Warcraft Rumble would enter full release on November 3 during BlizzCon 2023, many of our staffers in the US are currently able to play on both Apple and Android. We did all pre-order the game for free, so if you didn’t, you may be out of luck, but it’s worth a look at your App or Play store.

There are a lot of reasons to believe the game will be live at BlizzCon, even beyond the soft launch. It’s arguable that the game should be released already: the interval between Diablo Immortal’s closed beta and release was eight months — a length of time already exceeded by the Warcraft Rumble beta. While the Microsoft acquisition was known when the announcement was made it may be a factor in the lack of a release yet. Ditto the arrival of DI last year; honestly, it would be managerial malpractice to not consider the launch of your previous mobile-only offering in your planning.

The phrase “mobile-only” may also no longer be true and it wouldn’t surprise me if Arclight is converted into a desktop format like Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal. While a PC option is not guaranteed, I tend to think players would prefer to have the option rather than be forced to play it only on mobile. If the decision was made to add one that would increase the development time and would explain why it hasn’t been released yet.

The final consideration for the release date is Blizzard’s schedule for the year ahead. After Diablo 4 came out in June, there’s little else happening in 2023. Sure, World of Warcraft will still be releasing patches and Hearthstone will be releasing expansions but the fall and early winter may be quiet. The return of BlizzCon after a four year hiatus is going to be very “loud” from a marketing standpoint, and having an imminent launch for Rumble allows the team to go all-in and get the hype going. It won’t be the biggest news at BlizzCon most likely (next WoW expansion?) but it’s something that could get a lot of screen time. Launching it during or shortly after BlizzCon would keep that momentum going.

There is also a cross-promotion in WoW, with Rumble tokens showing up in that game already, leading to achievements, minis, and other fun stuff. We’ll update again when we know more.

Originally published May 3, 2022; updated November 2, 2023