Happy birthday to us! Celebrate Blizzard Watch’s 9th anniversary with brand new phoenix merch

This month is the 9th anniversary of Blizzard Watch’s launch, when we built this website on nothing but hope after WoW Insider was shut down. When we made our plans for Blizzard Watch, we had no idea if it would get off the ground, as we huddled around our computers, watched our new Patreon page, and recorded our very first Blizzard Watch Podcast.

We had a whole lot of hope, but we didn’t know what was going to happen: until you showed up, overwhelming us with your support and encouragement. And now we’re still here, nine years later, all thanks to your support.

It’s been a wild ride. We’ve built a team of old friends who know all of our WoW Insider stories by heart and laugh at all of our in-jokes, and we’ve added newcomers to help us cover new games and genres. (Though can they really be called new when some of them have been here for nearly as long as the site has existed? Which, I remind you, has been nine years.) We’ve had successes and failures and weathered them together alongside you, our readers, our listeners, our Patreon supporters, our cheerleaders, and our critics. Whichever group you fall into — if you fall into any at all — I’m glad you’re here with us. We wouldn’t have made it here without you.

In celebration of our 9th anniversary, we’ve commissioned art of our blue phoenix mascot from CoffeeOwlyArts — you should follow them on Bluesky or Instagram if you like their work! Owly has made a fantastic version of our phoenix friend who looks just as proud as we are to have been here for nine years. If you’d like to celebrate with us, you can grab some phoenix merch of your own: we’re selling t-shirts, hoodies, stickers, mugs, blankets, and pillows.

The Blizzard Watch store will be open for the month of February and then it closes again.

While the site is largely supported by Patreon, proceeds from merch sales go to paying our writers and editors, and we hope to bank a little extra for the busy BlizzCon season. But if you don’t wear hoodies, don’t need a phoenix pillow, or want to throw us a little extra support, you can back us on Patreon. A large and critical part of the site’s operating expenses are covered by our Patreon subscribers, and your support allows this site to keep going. If you haven’t signed up as a Patron, now is great time. Our Patreon benefits include:

• $3 gives you early access to the 8-10 podcasts we publish a month, plus exclusive access to the longer, uncut recording of the Blizzard Watch Podcast
• $5 gives you an ads-free experience on the site
• $10 gives you access to our behind-the-scenes Discord channel where you can see the writers and editors post memes work hard to bring you daily content

There’s also a $1 tier if you just want to contribute to the site. Every tier comes with additional benefits as well. You can check them all on our Patreon page.

Remember, if you want to pick up anything, the Blizzard Watch store will only be open until February 29, 2024, so make your decisions before the end of the month.

Thanks again for all of your love and support!

Originally published February 7, 2024; updated February 12, 2024